BEAUVOIR LEITORA DE SADE

Between 1951 and 1952, Simone de Beauvoir published her essay Must We Burn Sade? In this essay, Beauvoir applies the phenomenological and existentialist tools she had developed in her early writings to the analysis of the Marquis de Sade's work. In this way, she produces a study that is simultaneously an important piece for studies on the Marquis de Sade and for understanding her own work. In this article, we propose to carry out a twofold task. First, to expose and comment on the central conceptual articulations of this text. To this end, we will also draw on the context of her writing and seek to highlight the dialogues she establishes with Sade. Secondly, we will seek to show its relevance to studies of Beauvoir's work. This will be done through a comparative analysis of the themes, methods, and phenomenological concepts employed in Must We Burn Sade? and those formulated in the author's early essays, especially in For a Morality of Ambiguity and Pyrrhus and Cineas. Our overall objective will be to show that this text by Beauvoir highlights the potential of Sade's work to engage with central issues of our time, so that Beauvoir's own reading is not limited to a scholarly philosophical commentary, butis, on the contrary, a central piece in the formulation of her philosophy.