Marguerite Yourcenar’s Care for the World

May Chehab

Abstract


For Marguerite Yourcenar, the human species is the cause of a new mass extinction caused by the transformation of the ecosphere to the anthroposphere. Not only does her concern for the earth castigate a still segregated conception of ecology – humanity on the one side, everything
else on the other – she also attacks the source of this evil anthropocentrism: the belief in human exceptionalism, whose intention is to justify philosophically and biologically the superiority of the human species. Faced with predatory behaviour and moral pandemics, Yourcenar criticizes the fallacious presuppositions of such an exalted view of humanity.


Keywords


anti-speciesism; human exceptionalism; mind-body dualism

References


Dictionnaire Marguerite Yourcenar (2017). Honoré Champion.

Duplé, N. (Ed.). Le droit à la qualité de l’environnement. Un droit en devenir, un droit à définir (pp. 21–33). Éditions Québec/Amérique.

Ellul, J. (1964). Max Weber, l’éthique protestante et l’esprit du capitalisme. SEDEIS, 905(1). https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lhoumeau.com%2Fw

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Yourcenar, M. (1988). Si nous voulons encore sauver la terre. In N. Duplé (Ed.), Le droit à la qualité de l’environnement. Un droit en devenir, un droit à définir (pp. 21–33). Éditions Québec/Amérique.

Yourcenar, M. (1991a). Denier du rêve. In M. Yourcenar, OEuvres romanesques (pp. 159–284). Gallimard. (Original work published [1934] 1959)

Yourcenar, M. (1991a). L’OEuvre au Noir. In M. Yourcenar, OEuvres romanesques (pp. 557–877). Gallimard. (Original work published 1968)

Yourcenar, M. (1991b). Souvenirs pieux. In M. Yourcenar, Essais et Mémoires (pp. 705–949). Gallimard. (Original work published 1974)

Yourcenar, M. (1997). Les Yeux ouverts. Entretiens avec Matthieu Galey. Centurion/Bayard Éditions.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2025.49.1.49-54
Date of publication: 2025-04-01 12:28:39
Date of submission: 2023-12-07 10:36:47


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