Morny Joy
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719055232
- eISBN:
- 9781781700792
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719055232.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This book explores the work of Luce Irigaray, one of the most influential and controversial figures in feminist thought—although Irigaray herself disclaims the term ‘feminism’. Irigaray's work stands ...
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This book explores the work of Luce Irigaray, one of the most influential and controversial figures in feminist thought—although Irigaray herself disclaims the term ‘feminism’. Irigaray's work stands at the intersection of contemporary debates concerned with culture, gender and religion, but her ideas have not yet been presented in a comprehensive way from the perspective of religious studies. The book examines the development of religious themes from Irigaray's initial work, Speculum of the Other Woman, in which she rejects traditional forms of western religions, to her more recent explorations of eastern religions. Irigaray's ideas on love, the divine, an ethics of sexual difference and normative heterosexuality are analysed. These analyses are placed in the context of the reception of Irigaray's work by secular feminists such as Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell and Elizabeth Grosz, as well as by feminists in religious studies such as Pamela Sue Anderson, Ellen Armour, Amy Hollywood and Grace Jantzen. Most of these thinkers reject Irigaray's proposals for women's adoption of gender-specific qualities as a form of gender essentialism. Finally, Irigaray's own spiritual path, which has been influenced by eastern religions, specifically the disciplines of yoga and tantra in Hinduism and Buddhism, is evaluated in the light of recent theoretical developments in orientalism and postcolonialism.Less
This book explores the work of Luce Irigaray, one of the most influential and controversial figures in feminist thought—although Irigaray herself disclaims the term ‘feminism’. Irigaray's work stands at the intersection of contemporary debates concerned with culture, gender and religion, but her ideas have not yet been presented in a comprehensive way from the perspective of religious studies. The book examines the development of religious themes from Irigaray's initial work, Speculum of the Other Woman, in which she rejects traditional forms of western religions, to her more recent explorations of eastern religions. Irigaray's ideas on love, the divine, an ethics of sexual difference and normative heterosexuality are analysed. These analyses are placed in the context of the reception of Irigaray's work by secular feminists such as Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell and Elizabeth Grosz, as well as by feminists in religious studies such as Pamela Sue Anderson, Ellen Armour, Amy Hollywood and Grace Jantzen. Most of these thinkers reject Irigaray's proposals for women's adoption of gender-specific qualities as a form of gender essentialism. Finally, Irigaray's own spiritual path, which has been influenced by eastern religions, specifically the disciplines of yoga and tantra in Hinduism and Buddhism, is evaluated in the light of recent theoretical developments in orientalism and postcolonialism.
Rebecca Hill
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823237241
- eISBN:
- 9780823240708
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823237241.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This book offers a sustained analysis of the concept grounding Irigaray's thought: the constitutive yet incalculable interval of sexual difference. In an extension of Irigaray's project, it takes up ...
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This book offers a sustained analysis of the concept grounding Irigaray's thought: the constitutive yet incalculable interval of sexual difference. In an extension of Irigaray's project, it takes up her formulation of the interval as a way of rereading Aristotle's concept of topos and Bergson's concept of duration. A sexed hierarchy is diagnosed at the heart of Aristotle's and Bergson's presentations. Yet beyond that phallocentrism, this book points out how Aristotle's theory of topos as a sensible relation between two bodies that differ in being and Bergson's intuition of duration as an incalculable threshold of becoming are indispensable to the feminist effort to think about sexual difference. Reading Irigaray with Aristotle and Bergson, it is argued that the interval cannot be grasped as a space between two identities; it must be characterized as the sensible threshold of becoming, constitutive of the very identity of beings. The interval is the place of the possibility of sexed subjectivity and intersubjectivity, and is also a threshold of the becoming of sexed forces.Less
This book offers a sustained analysis of the concept grounding Irigaray's thought: the constitutive yet incalculable interval of sexual difference. In an extension of Irigaray's project, it takes up her formulation of the interval as a way of rereading Aristotle's concept of topos and Bergson's concept of duration. A sexed hierarchy is diagnosed at the heart of Aristotle's and Bergson's presentations. Yet beyond that phallocentrism, this book points out how Aristotle's theory of topos as a sensible relation between two bodies that differ in being and Bergson's intuition of duration as an incalculable threshold of becoming are indispensable to the feminist effort to think about sexual difference. Reading Irigaray with Aristotle and Bergson, it is argued that the interval cannot be grasped as a space between two identities; it must be characterized as the sensible threshold of becoming, constitutive of the very identity of beings. The interval is the place of the possibility of sexed subjectivity and intersubjectivity, and is also a threshold of the becoming of sexed forces.
Rebecca Hill
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823237241
- eISBN:
- 9780823240708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823237241.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This concluding chapter traces the relationship between the presentation of the interval as relation addressed in Part One of the book and the presentation of the interval as becoming sketched in ...
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This concluding chapter traces the relationship between the presentation of the interval as relation addressed in Part One of the book and the presentation of the interval as becoming sketched in Part Two of the book. It argues that the interval is difference, the threshold from which space and time and matter and form are engendered. While Irigaray tends to focus on the interval as the threshold that engenders a non-hierarchical relationship between woman and man, she also affirms the interval as difference itself, if she is read carefully. The concept of the interval is conceived, via a radicalization of Aristotle's account of place, as a sensible relation. This relational concept of difference cannot be presented as such, as Bergson's thinking of duration demonstrates that the interval remains in becoming as an open threshold of potentiality.Less
This concluding chapter traces the relationship between the presentation of the interval as relation addressed in Part One of the book and the presentation of the interval as becoming sketched in Part Two of the book. It argues that the interval is difference, the threshold from which space and time and matter and form are engendered. While Irigaray tends to focus on the interval as the threshold that engenders a non-hierarchical relationship between woman and man, she also affirms the interval as difference itself, if she is read carefully. The concept of the interval is conceived, via a radicalization of Aristotle's account of place, as a sensible relation. This relational concept of difference cannot be presented as such, as Bergson's thinking of duration demonstrates that the interval remains in becoming as an open threshold of potentiality.
Linda Martín Alcoff
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195137347
- eISBN:
- 9780199785773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195137345.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter focuses on women's specifically gendered identity and its basis in sexual difference. It argues that there are persuasive grounds for an objective rather than totally fluid account of ...
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This chapter focuses on women's specifically gendered identity and its basis in sexual difference. It argues that there are persuasive grounds for an objective rather than totally fluid account of sex categories, that objectivity does not require an escape from mediation in human knowledge or the ability to have “out of theory experiences”, and that the tendency for descriptive accounts to become prescriptive is a variable rather than uniform or absolute tendency and can be offset. The objective basis of sex categories is in the differential relationship to reproductive capacity between men and women, but a sexual categorization based on the biological division of reproductive labor does not establish a necessary link between reproduction beyond conception and heterosexuality.Less
This chapter focuses on women's specifically gendered identity and its basis in sexual difference. It argues that there are persuasive grounds for an objective rather than totally fluid account of sex categories, that objectivity does not require an escape from mediation in human knowledge or the ability to have “out of theory experiences”, and that the tendency for descriptive accounts to become prescriptive is a variable rather than uniform or absolute tendency and can be offset. The objective basis of sex categories is in the differential relationship to reproductive capacity between men and women, but a sexual categorization based on the biological division of reproductive labor does not establish a necessary link between reproduction beyond conception and heterosexuality.
Linda LeMoncheck
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195105568
- eISBN:
- 9780199852949
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195105568.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
The “loose women” described in this book pose a threat to patriarchy by challenging the constraints of monogamy imposed on women by an androcentric heterosexuality. However, women in search of sexual ...
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The “loose women” described in this book pose a threat to patriarchy by challenging the constraints of monogamy imposed on women by an androcentric heterosexuality. However, women in search of sexual liberation may also challenge patriarchal appropriations of women's sexuality by challenging traditional heterosexuality's dominance over what constitutes “normal” sex. Along these lines, a feminist reclamation of sex for women would mean redefining and rediscovering so-called deviant or perverted sex as a way to subvert the patriarchal subordination of women that “normal” heterosexuality reinforces. This chapter uses the dialectical and contextual perspective of the “view from somewhere different” to negotiate the tensions between conflicting feminist perspectives with respect to sexual perversion. The chapter proposes to replace expressions such as “sexual perversion” and “sexual norm” with the less evaluatively charged expression of “sexual difference.” It then describes and evaluates the debate over three types of sexual difference of particular concern to both cultural feminists and sex radical feminists: man/boy love, butch/femme sexual role-playing, and lesbian sadomasochism.Less
The “loose women” described in this book pose a threat to patriarchy by challenging the constraints of monogamy imposed on women by an androcentric heterosexuality. However, women in search of sexual liberation may also challenge patriarchal appropriations of women's sexuality by challenging traditional heterosexuality's dominance over what constitutes “normal” sex. Along these lines, a feminist reclamation of sex for women would mean redefining and rediscovering so-called deviant or perverted sex as a way to subvert the patriarchal subordination of women that “normal” heterosexuality reinforces. This chapter uses the dialectical and contextual perspective of the “view from somewhere different” to negotiate the tensions between conflicting feminist perspectives with respect to sexual perversion. The chapter proposes to replace expressions such as “sexual perversion” and “sexual norm” with the less evaluatively charged expression of “sexual difference.” It then describes and evaluates the debate over three types of sexual difference of particular concern to both cultural feminists and sex radical feminists: man/boy love, butch/femme sexual role-playing, and lesbian sadomasochism.
Andrea Hurst
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228744
- eISBN:
- 9780823235179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228744.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
A Lacanian account of sexual difference exemplifies the logic of différance. This chapter addresses a trouble that both Lacan and Derrida persistently grapple with: that ...
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A Lacanian account of sexual difference exemplifies the logic of différance. This chapter addresses a trouble that both Lacan and Derrida persistently grapple with: that of understanding difference in terms of binary oppositions. Some thinkers argue that this binary is a fundamental, undeconstructible bottom line that one cannot get beyond. The opposing view is that this binary opposition is as deconstructible as any other and should give way to an unregulated proliferation of differences. The former is assumed to be the Lacanian position (but not, of course, by Lacanians); the second is supposed to be the Derridean (but, again, not by Derrideans). There is, in other words, mutual misrecognition on both sides of this equation. Contrary to the aforementioned reading, it seems clear enough that Lacan's infamous claim concerning the sexual relation — namely, that it does not exist — offers a deconstruction of any conception of sexual difference as binary.Less
A Lacanian account of sexual difference exemplifies the logic of différance. This chapter addresses a trouble that both Lacan and Derrida persistently grapple with: that of understanding difference in terms of binary oppositions. Some thinkers argue that this binary is a fundamental, undeconstructible bottom line that one cannot get beyond. The opposing view is that this binary opposition is as deconstructible as any other and should give way to an unregulated proliferation of differences. The former is assumed to be the Lacanian position (but not, of course, by Lacanians); the second is supposed to be the Derridean (but, again, not by Derrideans). There is, in other words, mutual misrecognition on both sides of this equation. Contrary to the aforementioned reading, it seems clear enough that Lacan's infamous claim concerning the sexual relation — namely, that it does not exist — offers a deconstruction of any conception of sexual difference as binary.
Carl N. Degler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195077070
- eISBN:
- 9780199853991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195077070.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter examines social scientists' study of the influence of biology and the nature of females in terms of differences in human behavior. One of those who took a look at how physiological ...
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This chapter examines social scientists' study of the influence of biology and the nature of females in terms of differences in human behavior. One of those who took a look at how physiological differences between men and women might affect behavior was Alice Rossi in 1965. Rossi measured the impact that biological ideas have had upon social scientists and suggested that though women and men were different physiologically they were interchangeable socially.Less
This chapter examines social scientists' study of the influence of biology and the nature of females in terms of differences in human behavior. One of those who took a look at how physiological differences between men and women might affect behavior was Alice Rossi in 1965. Rossi measured the impact that biological ideas have had upon social scientists and suggested that though women and men were different physiologically they were interchangeable socially.
RACHEL BOWLBY
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199566228
- eISBN:
- 9780191710407
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566228.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter involves detailed readings of what Freud says about children's early questions about what they do not yet know as sexuality: Where do babies come from? What is the difference between ...
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This chapter involves detailed readings of what Freud says about children's early questions about what they do not yet know as sexuality: Where do babies come from? What is the difference between boys and girls? What is it that married people do together? There are some variations and inconsistencies in his view of which of these questions comes first, and this in turn is related to the development of his own theories or myths of sexual difference. Further, Freud assumes in children a curiosity which is always ultimately a sexual curiosity: sexual questions are the spur to and prototype of all research, and the theories or myths that children formulate to answer them are early versions of later scientific ones, including Freud's own.Less
This chapter involves detailed readings of what Freud says about children's early questions about what they do not yet know as sexuality: Where do babies come from? What is the difference between boys and girls? What is it that married people do together? There are some variations and inconsistencies in his view of which of these questions comes first, and this in turn is related to the development of his own theories or myths of sexual difference. Further, Freud assumes in children a curiosity which is always ultimately a sexual curiosity: sexual questions are the spur to and prototype of all research, and the theories or myths that children formulate to answer them are early versions of later scientific ones, including Freud's own.
Claire Colebrook
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622276
- eISBN:
- 9780748671663
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622276.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses the philosophy of Irigaray. Like Heidegger, Irigaray's critique of Western metaphysics seems poised between an attempt to think the ground of thought — a ground that has always ...
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This chapter discusses the philosophy of Irigaray. Like Heidegger, Irigaray's critique of Western metaphysics seems poised between an attempt to think the ground of thought — a ground that has always been figured as feminine — and a refusal to posit that ground as a presence, being or essence to which thought might simply return. Irigaray's thought concerns the modality of transcendence: the way in which thought directs itself towards what is other than itself. If Heidegger's Destruktion of metaphysics can be understood as neither a simple return to thought's ground, nor a location of thought within a representational scheme, Irigaray's uptake of the question of transcendence can be seen to harbour a similar double strategy. This chapter discusses how to read Irigaray reading metaphysics; feminine metaphysics; the question of sexual difference; sensible transcendence; transcendence as sexual difference; the sensible transcendental; the time of sexual difference; beyond the location of the sexual transcendental; and autonomy.Less
This chapter discusses the philosophy of Irigaray. Like Heidegger, Irigaray's critique of Western metaphysics seems poised between an attempt to think the ground of thought — a ground that has always been figured as feminine — and a refusal to posit that ground as a presence, being or essence to which thought might simply return. Irigaray's thought concerns the modality of transcendence: the way in which thought directs itself towards what is other than itself. If Heidegger's Destruktion of metaphysics can be understood as neither a simple return to thought's ground, nor a location of thought within a representational scheme, Irigaray's uptake of the question of transcendence can be seen to harbour a similar double strategy. This chapter discusses how to read Irigaray reading metaphysics; feminine metaphysics; the question of sexual difference; sensible transcendence; transcendence as sexual difference; the sensible transcendental; the time of sexual difference; beyond the location of the sexual transcendental; and autonomy.
Carol Lansing
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195149807
- eISBN:
- 9780199849079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195149807.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter explores three topics in Cathar understandings of male and female bodies, set against the background of contemporary Catholic belief. The first topic is sexual difference and lust. It ...
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This chapter explores three topics in Cathar understandings of male and female bodies, set against the background of contemporary Catholic belief. The first topic is sexual difference and lust. It explores ideas about sexual difference as stated and as practiced by Cathars. The second topic is marriage. One teaching common to virtually all Cathar texts is the condemnation of marriage and the procreation of children. Finally, the chapter turns from sexuality and marriage to a third focus of debate over the body: corpses. Catholic clerics did not directly attack dualist heresy by emphasizing the divine origins of human sexuality and consummation as the perfection of the sacrament of marriage. Instead, they answered heresy by stressing the ways in which corpses revealed sanctity or sin.Less
This chapter explores three topics in Cathar understandings of male and female bodies, set against the background of contemporary Catholic belief. The first topic is sexual difference and lust. It explores ideas about sexual difference as stated and as practiced by Cathars. The second topic is marriage. One teaching common to virtually all Cathar texts is the condemnation of marriage and the procreation of children. Finally, the chapter turns from sexuality and marriage to a third focus of debate over the body: corpses. Catholic clerics did not directly attack dualist heresy by emphasizing the divine origins of human sexuality and consummation as the perfection of the sacrament of marriage. Instead, they answered heresy by stressing the ways in which corpses revealed sanctity or sin.
Rebecca Hill
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823237241
- eISBN:
- 9780823240708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823237241.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Irigaray's “Place, interval” from An Ethics of Sexual Difference is the focus of this chapter. Her essay resumes the critical description of Aristotle that she began in “How to conceive of a girl?” ...
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Irigaray's “Place, interval” from An Ethics of Sexual Difference is the focus of this chapter. Her essay resumes the critical description of Aristotle that she began in “How to conceive of a girl?” in Speculum of the Other Woman. Where Irigaray's first essay stops short of proposing a way to figure a concept of difference as the threshold for a non-hierarchical sexuate relation, “Place, interval” directly affirms the interval as the opening between woman and man, through which their relationship and their identities as sexed subjects are articulated. While Irigaray's account of the relation between woman and man is presented in terms of heterosexual carnality, it is argued that her figuration of sexuate subjects is not reducible to heterosexuality. This chapter suggests that her project has important implications for lesbian, gay, and queer carnalities. The final section argues that Irigaray's radicalization of Aristotle goes beyond a theory of sexed inter-subjectivity; she posits a new conceptualization of the matter—form relation that emerges from the interval.Less
Irigaray's “Place, interval” from An Ethics of Sexual Difference is the focus of this chapter. Her essay resumes the critical description of Aristotle that she began in “How to conceive of a girl?” in Speculum of the Other Woman. Where Irigaray's first essay stops short of proposing a way to figure a concept of difference as the threshold for a non-hierarchical sexuate relation, “Place, interval” directly affirms the interval as the opening between woman and man, through which their relationship and their identities as sexed subjects are articulated. While Irigaray's account of the relation between woman and man is presented in terms of heterosexual carnality, it is argued that her figuration of sexuate subjects is not reducible to heterosexuality. This chapter suggests that her project has important implications for lesbian, gay, and queer carnalities. The final section argues that Irigaray's radicalization of Aristotle goes beyond a theory of sexed inter-subjectivity; she posits a new conceptualization of the matter—form relation that emerges from the interval.
Luce Irigaray
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199559213
- eISBN:
- 9780191594403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559213.003.0012
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the Antigone myth and its unveiling in history from the context of sexual difference. Sexual difference is the most basic and universal difference, starting from which we can ...
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This chapter explores the Antigone myth and its unveiling in history from the context of sexual difference. Sexual difference is the most basic and universal difference, starting from which we can reach a global democratic community and culture respectful of all our other differences. Antigone's respect for the unwritten laws—the laws of human nature and the gods—reveals her respect for living beings and the cosmic order. She sees Polynices as the ‘son of my mother’. To Antigone humanity is comprised of man and of woman and she respects this sexual difference just as she respects her brother as a brother and her duty to him as a sister before her marriage to Haemon. Antigone fights not solely for her brother's burial but also to maintain the cosmic harmony. She tries to maintain a delicate balance between the gods of the underworld, her world, and Zeus. Life is the supreme value for Antigone. She only asks to live, to be. Creon breaks the cosmic harmony. He does not take female sexual identity into consideration. Creon can be viewed as a eunuch due to his lack of differentiation from the maternal world. Irigaray questions how the maternal world that asserts itself as patriarchy has been established in an arbitrary way. She believes that the maternal world should not begin with function but with sexual difference. A woman is first and foremost a woman before she is a mother. A feminine order can help men provide for differentiation (not repression) and growth of identity.Less
This chapter explores the Antigone myth and its unveiling in history from the context of sexual difference. Sexual difference is the most basic and universal difference, starting from which we can reach a global democratic community and culture respectful of all our other differences. Antigone's respect for the unwritten laws—the laws of human nature and the gods—reveals her respect for living beings and the cosmic order. She sees Polynices as the ‘son of my mother’. To Antigone humanity is comprised of man and of woman and she respects this sexual difference just as she respects her brother as a brother and her duty to him as a sister before her marriage to Haemon. Antigone fights not solely for her brother's burial but also to maintain the cosmic harmony. She tries to maintain a delicate balance between the gods of the underworld, her world, and Zeus. Life is the supreme value for Antigone. She only asks to live, to be. Creon breaks the cosmic harmony. He does not take female sexual identity into consideration. Creon can be viewed as a eunuch due to his lack of differentiation from the maternal world. Irigaray questions how the maternal world that asserts itself as patriarchy has been established in an arbitrary way. She believes that the maternal world should not begin with function but with sexual difference. A woman is first and foremost a woman before she is a mother. A feminine order can help men provide for differentiation (not repression) and growth of identity.
Kathleen M. Brown
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195112436
- eISBN:
- 9780199854271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195112436.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter discusses the gender identity of Thomas Hall and how it stirred controversy among the residents of Warraskoyack, Virginia, a small English settlement. It explains that Hall's case ...
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This chapter discusses the gender identity of Thomas Hall and how it stirred controversy among the residents of Warraskoyack, Virginia, a small English settlement. It explains that Hall's case presents a nonetheless richly detailed glimpse of an early modern community's response to gender transgression, exposing to view a multiplicity of popular beliefs about sexual difference and the variety of uses to which they could be put by groups of people with different stakes in the social order. The Hall case not only provides documentary evidence of maleness and femaleness, but offers an opportunity to reconstruct what people might call “beliefs-in-action.” Hall's case also offers a unique chance to compare popular concepts of sexual difference. The chapter discusses how Hall was denied the right to choose a single identity—a marked departure from the usual European treatment of hermaphrodites.Less
This chapter discusses the gender identity of Thomas Hall and how it stirred controversy among the residents of Warraskoyack, Virginia, a small English settlement. It explains that Hall's case presents a nonetheless richly detailed glimpse of an early modern community's response to gender transgression, exposing to view a multiplicity of popular beliefs about sexual difference and the variety of uses to which they could be put by groups of people with different stakes in the social order. The Hall case not only provides documentary evidence of maleness and femaleness, but offers an opportunity to reconstruct what people might call “beliefs-in-action.” Hall's case also offers a unique chance to compare popular concepts of sexual difference. The chapter discusses how Hall was denied the right to choose a single identity—a marked departure from the usual European treatment of hermaphrodites.
Judith Still
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640270
- eISBN:
- 9780748671786
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640270.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book is a full-length study of hospitality in the writings of Jacques Derrida. Hospitality is critically important in Derrida's writings, and his insights in this have been influential across a ...
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This book is a full-length study of hospitality in the writings of Jacques Derrida. Hospitality is critically important in Derrida's writings, and his insights in this have been influential across a range of disciplines from geography, politics and sociology to literary studies and philosophy. It functions as a way of both thinking about relations between individuals, and analysing the (often inhospitable) reception of outsiders, such as refugees or migrants, by the community or state. Still also follows the thread of sexual difference in Derrida's writing in order to shed light on his exploration of the complex and delicate, strange yet familiar, political, and ethical dilemmas of how to be those impossible things, a good host and a good guest. This book sets Derrida's work in a series of contexts including the socio-political history of France, especially in relation to Algeria, and the writing on hospitality of other key thinkers, most importantly Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Emmanuel Levinas.Less
This book is a full-length study of hospitality in the writings of Jacques Derrida. Hospitality is critically important in Derrida's writings, and his insights in this have been influential across a range of disciplines from geography, politics and sociology to literary studies and philosophy. It functions as a way of both thinking about relations between individuals, and analysing the (often inhospitable) reception of outsiders, such as refugees or migrants, by the community or state. Still also follows the thread of sexual difference in Derrida's writing in order to shed light on his exploration of the complex and delicate, strange yet familiar, political, and ethical dilemmas of how to be those impossible things, a good host and a good guest. This book sets Derrida's work in a series of contexts including the socio-political history of France, especially in relation to Algeria, and the writing on hospitality of other key thinkers, most importantly Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Emmanuel Levinas.
Jonathan Dollimore
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198112259
- eISBN:
- 9780191670732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198112259.003.0017
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
Several kinds of difference figure in contemporary cultural theory but two especially: sexual difference and cultural difference, with each of these complicated by a third kind of difference which ...
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Several kinds of difference figure in contemporary cultural theory but two especially: sexual difference and cultural difference, with each of these complicated by a third kind of difference which construes meaning and identity in terms of difference or, more exactly, differential relations, the ‘semiotic difference’. The homosexual is significantly implicated in both sexual and cultural differences, and for two main reasons. First because he or she has been regarded as one who fears the difference of the ‘other’ or opposite sex. Secondly, contrary to what the foregoing theory implies, she or he has, in historical actuality, embraced both cultural difference and racial difference. This crossing constitutes a complex, difficult history, one from which we can learn. This chapter argues for the importance of this history for all three kinds of difference — sexual, cultural, and semiotic — as they figure in current theory.Less
Several kinds of difference figure in contemporary cultural theory but two especially: sexual difference and cultural difference, with each of these complicated by a third kind of difference which construes meaning and identity in terms of difference or, more exactly, differential relations, the ‘semiotic difference’. The homosexual is significantly implicated in both sexual and cultural differences, and for two main reasons. First because he or she has been regarded as one who fears the difference of the ‘other’ or opposite sex. Secondly, contrary to what the foregoing theory implies, she or he has, in historical actuality, embraced both cultural difference and racial difference. This crossing constitutes a complex, difficult history, one from which we can learn. This chapter argues for the importance of this history for all three kinds of difference — sexual, cultural, and semiotic — as they figure in current theory.
Jerome Murphy‐O'connor
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199564156
- eISBN:
- 9780191721281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564156.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter argues that 1 Cor 11: 2–16 has nothing to do with the veiling of women. The man is criticized for letting his hair grow long, because it was the overt sign of the active male homosexual. ...
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This chapter argues that 1 Cor 11: 2–16 has nothing to do with the veiling of women. The man is criticized for letting his hair grow long, because it was the overt sign of the active male homosexual. The woman, on the contrary, is blamed simply for not dressing her hair in the conventional manner. If she will not be feminine, she might as well go the whole way and appear ‘manish’ by cutting off her hair. Lesbians were known by their short hair. The point of Paul's argument from creation in Gen 2 is that, if God intended no difference between male and female, he would have created them in the same way. The difference between the sexes, in consequence, is important. Since Jews deduced the inferiority of women from Gan 2, Paul affirms their full equality by pointing out that the chronological primacy of man in creation is negated for contemporary man by the simple fact that he has a mother.Less
This chapter argues that 1 Cor 11: 2–16 has nothing to do with the veiling of women. The man is criticized for letting his hair grow long, because it was the overt sign of the active male homosexual. The woman, on the contrary, is blamed simply for not dressing her hair in the conventional manner. If she will not be feminine, she might as well go the whole way and appear ‘manish’ by cutting off her hair. Lesbians were known by their short hair. The point of Paul's argument from creation in Gen 2 is that, if God intended no difference between male and female, he would have created them in the same way. The difference between the sexes, in consequence, is important. Since Jews deduced the inferiority of women from Gan 2, Paul affirms their full equality by pointing out that the chronological primacy of man in creation is negated for contemporary man by the simple fact that he has a mother.
Morny Joy
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719055232
- eISBN:
- 9781781700792
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719055232.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter recounts the reception of Irigaray's work by feminist scholars in its different phases. It evaluates the impact of the principal elements of Irigaray's work that are concerned with women ...
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This chapter recounts the reception of Irigaray's work by feminist scholars in its different phases. It evaluates the impact of the principal elements of Irigaray's work that are concerned with women and religion. It undertakes a survey of the way that Irigaray has influenced certain women philosophers, both religious and secular, and their responses to her work. Irigaray's work, particularly those explorations concerned with sexual difference, has been the subject of diverse reactions—both complimentary and unsympathetic. In religious studies, it also prompted women to develop their own critical analyses and creative experimentations, especially in reaction to the traditional formulas of the philosophy of religion. The chapter concludes by offering insight into the significance of Irigaray's contributions, particularly for scholars in the study of religion.Less
This chapter recounts the reception of Irigaray's work by feminist scholars in its different phases. It evaluates the impact of the principal elements of Irigaray's work that are concerned with women and religion. It undertakes a survey of the way that Irigaray has influenced certain women philosophers, both religious and secular, and their responses to her work. Irigaray's work, particularly those explorations concerned with sexual difference, has been the subject of diverse reactions—both complimentary and unsympathetic. In religious studies, it also prompted women to develop their own critical analyses and creative experimentations, especially in reaction to the traditional formulas of the philosophy of religion. The chapter concludes by offering insight into the significance of Irigaray's contributions, particularly for scholars in the study of religion.
Andrea Hurst
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228744
- eISBN:
- 9780823235179
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228744.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
Derrida and Lacan have long been viewed as proponents of two opposing schools of thought. This book argues, however, that the logical structure underpinning Lacanian psychoanalytic ...
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Derrida and Lacan have long been viewed as proponents of two opposing schools of thought. This book argues, however, that the logical structure underpinning Lacanian psychoanalytic theory is a complex, paradoxical relationality that corresponds to Derrida's “plural logic of the aporia”. It begins by linking this logic to a strand of thinking (in which Freud plays a part) that unsettles philosophy's transcendental tradition. It then shows that Derrida is just as serious and careful a reader of Freud's texts as Lacan. Interweaving the two thinkers, the book argues that the Lacanian Real is another name for Derrida's différance and shows how Derrida's writings on Heidegger and Nietzsche embody an attitude toward sexual difference and feminine sexuality that matches Lacanian insights. Derrida's “plural logic of the aporia”, it argues, can serve as a heuristic for addressing prominent themes in Lacanian psychoanalysis: subjectivity, ethics, and language. Finally, the book takes up Derrida's prejudicial reading of Lacan's Seminar on “The Purloined Letter”, which was instrumental in the antagonism between Derrideans and Lacanians. Although acknowledging the injustice of Derrida's reading, the book brings out the deep theoretical accord between thinkers that both recognize the power of psychoanalysis to address contemporary political and ethical issues.Less
Derrida and Lacan have long been viewed as proponents of two opposing schools of thought. This book argues, however, that the logical structure underpinning Lacanian psychoanalytic theory is a complex, paradoxical relationality that corresponds to Derrida's “plural logic of the aporia”. It begins by linking this logic to a strand of thinking (in which Freud plays a part) that unsettles philosophy's transcendental tradition. It then shows that Derrida is just as serious and careful a reader of Freud's texts as Lacan. Interweaving the two thinkers, the book argues that the Lacanian Real is another name for Derrida's différance and shows how Derrida's writings on Heidegger and Nietzsche embody an attitude toward sexual difference and feminine sexuality that matches Lacanian insights. Derrida's “plural logic of the aporia”, it argues, can serve as a heuristic for addressing prominent themes in Lacanian psychoanalysis: subjectivity, ethics, and language. Finally, the book takes up Derrida's prejudicial reading of Lacan's Seminar on “The Purloined Letter”, which was instrumental in the antagonism between Derrideans and Lacanians. Although acknowledging the injustice of Derrida's reading, the book brings out the deep theoretical accord between thinkers that both recognize the power of psychoanalysis to address contemporary political and ethical issues.
Janet Martin Soskice
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269502
- eISBN:
- 9780191683657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269502.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Religion and Literature
This chapter examines the nature of Christian anthropology and it relations to other branches of holy teaching. One branch considered is ‘theology’, a term used generally to cover all manner of ...
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This chapter examines the nature of Christian anthropology and it relations to other branches of holy teaching. One branch considered is ‘theology’, a term used generally to cover all manner of religious thought, but which here means ‘the doctrine of God’. Christian anthropology is close to theology because human beings are created by God, and the destiny of all reasoning creatures is to share in the life of God. Rabbinic sources show some hesitancy in speaking of man as the image of God. The Genesis text also speaks about sexual difference. The chapter concludes that God is love, and that sexual difference is instrumental to marriage.Less
This chapter examines the nature of Christian anthropology and it relations to other branches of holy teaching. One branch considered is ‘theology’, a term used generally to cover all manner of religious thought, but which here means ‘the doctrine of God’. Christian anthropology is close to theology because human beings are created by God, and the destiny of all reasoning creatures is to share in the life of God. Rabbinic sources show some hesitancy in speaking of man as the image of God. The Genesis text also speaks about sexual difference. The chapter concludes that God is love, and that sexual difference is instrumental to marriage.
Rebecca Hill
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823237241
- eISBN:
- 9780823240708
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823237241.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter draws on Irigaray's critical description of metaphysics as phallocentrism to argue that Bergson's deduction of the duration of consciousness is predicated upon a sexed hierarchy. It ...
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This chapter draws on Irigaray's critical description of metaphysics as phallocentrism to argue that Bergson's deduction of the duration of consciousness is predicated upon a sexed hierarchy. It suggests that duration is posited in terms of paternal masculinity, and space (matter, the homogeneous) is denigrated and rendered as feminine in the phallocentric sense. And yet the privilege Bergson confers upon duration is by all means secure because its elevation depends upon the disavowal of heterogeneous spatiality or what Irigaray would call the maternal-feminine. The chapter concludes by rereading Bergson's deduction of the interval of duration with Irigaray and positing a formulation of the interval as a sensible and transcendental difference that articulates a non-hierarchical relationship between the sexes.Less
This chapter draws on Irigaray's critical description of metaphysics as phallocentrism to argue that Bergson's deduction of the duration of consciousness is predicated upon a sexed hierarchy. It suggests that duration is posited in terms of paternal masculinity, and space (matter, the homogeneous) is denigrated and rendered as feminine in the phallocentric sense. And yet the privilege Bergson confers upon duration is by all means secure because its elevation depends upon the disavowal of heterogeneous spatiality or what Irigaray would call the maternal-feminine. The chapter concludes by rereading Bergson's deduction of the interval of duration with Irigaray and positing a formulation of the interval as a sensible and transcendental difference that articulates a non-hierarchical relationship between the sexes.
