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Images, Self-Narration, and Radical Pragmatism in Simone de Beauvoir's Les Belles Images

Abstract:Les Belles Images explores the following question: how does one act meaningfully from within a limiting situation? This essay reevaluates the novel's thematic concern with images, providing an alternative to readings that view the novel as a simple critique of technocratic materialism or that credit the protagonist, Laurence, with overcoming the sway of images. Rather than reject images, Laurence moves toward a more strategic deployment of the same stock of images that initially seem to constrain her. Beauvoir demonstrates a radical pragmatism by exploring the productive role of images as part of Laurence's ongoing narrative and performative project of selfhood.