A Politics of Impossible Difference: The Later Work of Luce Irigaray - Hardcover

Deutscher, Penelope

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080143825X ISBN 13: 9780801438257

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2002

Synopsis

The influential philosopher and theorist Luce Irigaray has been faulted for giving more importance to sexual difference than to race and multiculturalism. Penelope Deutscher's eagerly awaited book, the first to focus on the scholar's controversial later works, addresses this charge. Through a learned critique of these lesser-known writings, the book examines Irigaray's claim that the politics of feminism and multiculturalism are intrinsically linked. The volume also serves as a clear and comprehensive introduction to her entire corpus.

In her recent works, Irigaray promotes sexual difference as the philosophical basis for legal, political, and linguistic reform. Deutscher explores this approach and in particular Irigaray's view that the very notion of difference is culturally "impossible."

Taking this concept of impossibility into consideration, Deutscher evaluates Irigaray's contributions to contemporary debates about the politics of identity, recognition, diversity, and multiculturalism. In a balanced discussion, she considers the philosopher's work from the perspective of fellow critics including Michéle Le Doeuff, Drucilla Cornell, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, and Charles Taylor.

About this title

About the Author

Penelope Deutscher is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Northwestern University. She is author of Yielding Gender: Deconstruction, Feminism, and the History of Philosophy and coeditor of Enigmas: Essays on Sarah Kofman, also from Cornell.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080143825X
• ISBN 13: 9780801438257
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240