Le Deuxième Sexe Censored under Francoism

Abstract

In 1936 Simone de Beauvoir was twenty- eight years old. If we compare the extent and the intensity of her activities in other areas, her non- involvement in politics until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War emerges as a strange phenomenon. It is clear that in her case, as in the case of her mentor Jean- Paul Sartre, who was three years older, there was no commitment in the cradle; not really during their adolescent or student years, nor as budding writers and philosophers, nor even after 1933 when Hitler rose to power. It was not until Franco’s troops landed in Spain in July 1936 that the two Existentialists became aware that the advancement of a cause required less sympathy than action.