File spoon-archives/french-feminism.archive/french-fem_1995/french-fem_Sep.95, message 74


Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 19:20:03 +1000 (EST)
From: Catherine Driscoll <s_cad1-AT-eduserv.its.unimelb.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Braidotti's Irigaray



Diane

Certainly Butler "stands on the shoulders" of Irigaray as you say 
(although perhaps a less vertical metaphor would suit Irigaray more), and 
that is (one reason) why I attributed the dismissal of 'gender' -- of 
women's specificity and even subjectivity -- to Kristeva rather 
than Butler.  I read _Bodies That Matter_ as very carefully constructing 
a space in which feminine specificity might be asserted without 
designating that specificity as prior or of the essence of woman.  Your 
assertion that Braidotti is not careful in qualifying this priority is 
worth thinking about.  However, I don't see how the argument for 
'feminine specificity' can be sidelined in Irigaray to just a few lapses 
which can be forgiven as side-effects of her analyses.  Unless, of 
course, those lapses are her texts.  I'd be interested to hear if you 
have similar objections to Elizabeth Grosz'reading of Irigaray (?) -- 
certainly she also, though differently, engages Irigaray and Deleuze (and 
Deleuze and Guattari) together in positing something like a female feminist 
subject.

All the best

Catherine

     ------------------

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005