La crise des intellectuels et ses avatars dans "Les Mandarins" de Simone de Beauvoir
The Crisis of Intellectuals and its Faces in "The Mandarins" by Simone de Beauvoir

Summary/Abstract: In the novel “The Mandarins”, Simone de Beauvoir shows the crisis of French intellectuals, namely writers facing ideological and political dilemmas after World War Two. Reflecting on the usefulness of their works, the main protagonists ask the fundamental question, namely why / for what to write and act. In the writer’s optics, two solutions are possible. On the one hand, the commitment, and the need for being aware of situations and actions. On the other hand, the idea of the autonomy of literature. This opposition seems to cause a failure of common expectations and hopes, conformism, collapse of values as well as love failures. The history of "broken illusions" of a known milieu allows the writer to make us realize the importance of morality, responsibility, and the presence of another human being. The meaning of the crisis in the novel is expressed by exposing what is most intimate, and by ascribing this state of affairs to the ills of the age, which become a political and ethical imperative.

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