Before considering the different ways in which bisexuality is precluded (chapter 4), displaced (chapter 5) and erased (chapter 6) as an identity which is understood to ‘belong’ to de Beauvoir, it is worth examining the processes through which particular identities are attributed to her, such that they are perceived to be a ‘property’ of her self. Two techniques in particular, both of which play a significant part in establishing de Beauvoir as a ‘unique’ individual, will be examined here. These are the author function (Foucault 1979a, 1991d) and narrative (Ricouer 1980, 1991a, 1991b).

Although I will be arguing that the author-function is a key mechanism by which critics are able to ascribe individuality to de Beauvoir and, further, to identify the site where the ‘truth’ of ‘her’ self is located, I am not suggesting that this is because de Beauvoir is, after all, the subject of enunciation. Instead, as an author, de Beauvoir fills ‘one of [the] possible positions’ (Deleuze 1988: 55) made available by discourse. For Foucault, the ‘Author’ functions as one of the internal procedures by which discourses are controlled, it ‘limits … [the] … element of chance [in discourse] by the play of an identity which has the form of individuality and the self’ (Foucault 1981: 59).