Luca Pinelli – Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and the Materiality of Life/Writing

Woolf Seminar

Luca Pinelli – Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir, and the Materiality of Life/Writing

24 October 2025 – 19.00 pm (Turkey time)

This talk addresses the resonances between Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, in particular by arguing that both authors engage, though from sometimes different angles, with the very ‘stuff’ of life. Although they have both come to be known as important 20th-century practitioners of the art of life-writing (e.g. biographies, diaries, letters, autobiographies or memoirs), it will be argued that their writings are interested in capturing the vital materiality of life as human (and sometimes nonhuman) subjects perceive it to be – beyond, that is, generic inscriptions. This talk will discuss the philosophical aspects underpinning their writerly (and readerly) activities before providing an interdisciplinary analysis of their emphasis on intercorporeality and embodiment.