Simone de Beauvoir’s Th e Second Sex was translated into Czech in 1966, the fi rst translation of the book to be published in a socialist state. It was, like many other translations during this period, a compilation of selections and was edited by the phenomenologist Jan Patočka who, in his postscript, presented the work primarily within its philosophical context. Th e book, which was published in three editions within two years and reached a combined print run of almost one hundred thousand copies, reaped substantial acclaim both among the lay and the academic public. Th e main debate about the book unfolded in the magazines Literární noviny and Vlasta, in which the contributors aired their views on the book from various positions – as advocates of phenomenology, Marxism, and the women’s press.
Simone de Beauvoir’s Th e Second Sex was translated into Czech in 1966, the fi rst translation of the book to be published in a socialist state. It was, like many other translations during this period, a compilation of selections and was edited by the phenomenologist Jan Patočka who, in his postscript, presented the work primarily within its philosophical context. Th e book, which was published in three editions within two years and reached a combined print run of almost one hundred thousand copies, reaped substantial acclaim both among the lay and the academic public. Th e main debate about the book unfolded in the magazines Literární noviny and Vlasta, in which the contributors aired their views on the book from various positions – as advocates of phenomenology, Marxism, and the women’s press. In order to make the main arguments of the Czech debate on Th e Second Sex accessible to our readers, we are publishing here Ashley Davies’s English translation of the contributions by Jan Patočka, Ivan Sviták, and Irena Dubská.