Abstract

Simone de Beauvoir is one of the most well‐known chroniclers of the twentieth century and her formal volumes of autobiography are widely cited as a left‐wing intellectual's account of her era. Yet her life writing extended far beyond formal memoir to include diaries, letters, and biographical testimonies. In this chapter I analyze the broad movements of Beauvoir's engagement with the genre, from her early philosophical diaries to her formal memoirs and biographies, in the context of her own philosophical and literary worldview. Her auto/biographical writings will emerge from this analysis as an individual case history in which Beauvoir tests out many of her philosophical notions concerning situated selfhood and bears witness to the major evolutions in twentieth century western society.