A aproximação dos ausentes: as cartas de Simone de Beauvoir para Nelson Algren

Abstract

In this paper, starting from the 304 letters written by Simone de Beauvoir to the American writer Nelson Algren, we investigate the apparent hiatus distancing the submissive and dependent woman who passionately declares herself to her interlocutor and the thinker who positions herself publicly in favour of individual freedoms. Due to both physical and cultural distance, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, Beauvoir and Algren discovered themselves mainly through exchanging letters. These letters, then, take the place of the absence of the other. So, to reveal herself and arouse the interest of her beloved, the author uses some strategies of persuasion, for example, the way to show dependence or even a highly passionate tone revealed in some of the missives. However, this declared dependence does not exceed from writing to the reality, since she does not definitively abandons her life in Paris to live in Chicago, refusing, therefore, to incarcerate her uniqueness in the models of a traditional marriage.