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Notes
- 1.
I’m thinking here specifically of the ‘waiter’ example that I refer to in Chap. 6, but also the example of the woman on the date who turns herself into a ‘passive object’ once the man she is dating makes advances towards her. This example in particular reflects a dubious picture of consent that I do not directly address in this book. Both examples feature in Sartre’s (2018) magnum opus, Being and Nothingness, and are also reminiscent of characters in the Roads to Freedom trilogy, particularly Ivich (Sartre, 2001), who is thought to be based on the real-life Olga Kosakiewicz, with whom Sartre had a tempestuous relationship.
- 2.
The recent publication, Tête-à -Tête: The Tumultuous Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley, focuses mainly on the (very public) private lives and relationships of both thinkers. Whilst Rowley does not fully consider the extent to which these correspond to their thought, and whilst I personally found much of the book to be overly sensationalist, it is nevertheless a useful resource in getting some sense of both the political milieux as well as the private goings on of both thinkers. Interestingly, whilst both Sartre and Beauvoir were teachers, and whilst this is mentioned in the book, this is not something of major focus. See: Rowley (2006).
- 3.
Much of my thought here can be credited to the writings of Rita Felski, particularly The Limits of Critique, where she argues for an expansion of the vocabulary we use when discussing literary works, such that we focus not only on ‘suspicious’ interpretations of texts characterised by the methods of deconstruction, demystification, denaturalisation, denouncement etc. Her approach, which I try to emulate here, includes seeing the text (a) as an ‘agent’ (in the Latourian sense) who is capable of responding to the reader, (b) as transhistorical in the sense that it is not encased within particular time periods in history, and (c) as reactive rather than inert, being shaped by the particular ‘mood’ or ‘sensibility’ through which we engage with it and, in turn, having the capacity to shape our own moods. See: Felski (2015).
- 4.
Saevort’s (2013) book, Indirect Pedagogy: Some Lessons in Existential Education, most closely represents this – i.e. by engaging with a range of existentialist ideas and concepts, Saevort aims to open a space in which pedagogy can be reimagined. For those wishing to understand how existentialist theory might therefore apply to the ways we teach, then this text is surely a very good place to start. Kneller’s (1958) book Existentialism and Education also attempted a similar feat some decades before.
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Brady, A.M. (2022). Introduction. In: Being a Teacher. Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education, vol 19. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7323-9_1
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