Free shipping on orders over $99
Volatile Bodies

Volatile Bodies

Toward a Corporeal Feminism

by Elizabeth Grosz
Paperback
Publication Date: 22/06/1994

Share This Book:

 
$32.95
The location of the author's investigations, the body itself rather than the sphere of subjective representations of self and of function in cultures, is wholly new.... I believe this work will be a landmark in future feminist thinking." -Alphonso Lingis

This is a text of rare erudition and intellectual force. It will not only introduce feminists to an enriching set of theoretical perspectives but sets a high critical standard for feminist dialogues on the status of the body." -Judith Butler

Volatile Bodies demonstrates that the sexually specific body is socially constructed: biology or nature is not opposed to or in conflict with culture. Human biology is inherently social and has no pure or natural "origin" outside of culture. Being the raw material of social and cultural organization, it is "incomplete" and thus subject to the endless rewriting and social inscription that constitute all sign systems.

Examining the theories of Freud, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, etc. on the subject of the body, Elizabeth Grosz concludes that the body they theorize is male. These thinkers are not providing an account of "human" corporeality but of male corporeality. Grosz then turns to corporeal experiences unique to women-menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause. Her examination of female experience lays the groundwork for developing theories of sexed corporeality rather than merely rectifying flawed models of male theorists.
ISBN:
9780253208620
9780253208620
Category:
Feminism & feminist theory
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
22-06-1994
Language:
English
Publisher:
Indiana University Press
Country of origin:
United States
Pages:
272
Dimensions (mm):
235x155x19mm
Weight:
0.45kg

Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available

Reviews

Be the first to review Volatile Bodies.