西方文论关键词：第二性

The Second Sex:A Keyword in Critical Theory

"第二性"是法国哲学家波伏娃在其同名著作中提出的概念,用来指称在父权社会中相对于男性而存在和定义的他者,即女性。该术语在后来的使用过程中内涵不断得到拓展,可以泛指所有处于社会边缘地位的群体。对于该术语渊源及变迁的梳理,能够厘清女性主义理论的后续发展同波伏娃思想的承继关系,把握女性从他者地位走向主体地位的历程,并透视女性主体在后现代和后结构主义语境之下呈现的新变化。作为哲学概念的"第二性"揭示的是女性存在的本质;而作为批评术语,它凝聚的是有关性别关系的所有冲突与张力。

The concept of ＂the second sex＂ was put forward by the French philoso- pher, Simone de Beauvoir, in her book of the same title, referring to woman, who is the Other whose existence is defined by man and with reference to man. In the following years, the term has been expanded to cover all groups of people who occupy the margin- alized position in the society. A review of the origin as well as the changes of the mean- ing of the term in history will highlight the inheritance that the later feminist theories bear to the ideas of de Beauvoir, clarify the process in which a woman moves from the Other toward her subjectivity, and at the same time observe the latest changes of female subjectivity in the postmodern and poststructuralist context. As a philosophical concept, ＂the second sex＂ reveals the very essence of female existence; as a critical term, it em- bodies all the conflicts and tensions in sexual relations.