Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 08:53:55 +0100
From: michael david pennamacoor <pennamacoor-AT-enterprise.net>
Subject: Re: talking about Irigaray


hi Simone

you wrote recently:

>Michael and all,
>
>Hi.  irigaray has several books that deal with elements in the works of
>other philosophers: Elemental Passions (earth) and The Marine Lover of
>Friedrich Nietzsche (water), and some argue that Speculum can also be
>placed in this category (fire).
>
>her emphasis on the elements: air, earth, fire, water, is part and
>parcel of her development of a sensible transcendental, and the elements
>operate on both literal and metaphorical levels (thus sensible
>transcendental), as well as part of her own return to pre-Socratic
>thinking.  usually, the elements are those that are ignored or devalued
>in other works, and she excavates them deconstructively as 'symbols' for
>the covering over of the feminine in metaphysics (the connection between
>the abyss and the womb in her Heidegger book and others, for instance).
>it's complicated.

Shortly, I should have Oblivion... and Marine... and I Love.... (when
amazon gets to ship them) and I'll treat myself to a full immersion. I the
very mean time, I wonder, given my interest in Heideggerand his attempts to
deconstruct the entire metaphysical tradition, in your opinion, whether
Irigaray is exposing, dis-covering, the feminine in metaphysics, in order
to re-instate, recover it within or around metaphysics or whether she is
attempting an overcoming (verwindung) of metaphysics and moving through to
another 'space' of thinking, say, by threading through the forgotten
feminine into the tapestry of erstwhile metaphysics, [thus transporting the
whole into...]?

The little I've read of Irigaray reminds me greatly of Heidegger at his
poetic scintillating best: it is language (of) thinking...

best wishes

michael



>
>my advice is never to get your irigaray second hand, no matter how
>honest or good the source.  each of her books is part of a fairly well
>unified (though i admit unified by the logic of metaphor and symbol more
>than by linearity) project, and her parole is so uniquely her own that
>one, i think, really should get immersed for themselves.  she a very
>poetic writer, and no two people read quite the same Irigaray for that
>reason.
>
>best to all,
>Simone
>
>michael david pennamacoor wrote:
>>
>> thankyou Noelle
>>
>> two or three initial questions:
>>
>> 1) are the "elements" earth & air meant literally or (in what way)
>> metaphorically?
>>
>> 2) is not earth also abundant and the 'soil and root'  for all that
>> be-comes and stirs (into life)? Heidegger also privileges light and the
>> clearing afforded by lighting... what does Irigaray say about this
>> privilege? Is it on a par with earth and oblivious in the same way of air?
>>
>> best wishes
>>
>> michael
>>
>> >Irigaray's main point in _The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger_ is
>> >that Heidegger privileges the element earth and is oblivious to the
>> >element air, which is abundant and is where "everything comes to pass
>> >and everything stirs" (13).
>> >
>> >--Noelle McAfee
>> >Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii;
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>> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>> >Content-Description: Card for Noelle McAfee
>> >Content-Disposition: attachment;
>> > filename="Noelle_McAfee.vcf"
>> >
>> >Attachment converted: Capitalist Pig:Noelle_McAfee.vcf (TEXT/TBB6)
>>(0003587E)
>>
>>      --- from list french-feminism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
>--
>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>Woe to the writer who fails to cultivate
>[her] megalomania, who sees it diminished
>without taking action. [She] will soon
>discover that one does not become *normal*
>with impunity.
>		-- E.M. Cioran
>		"On the Verge of Existence"
>
>Simone Roberts
>Ph.D. Candidate, Studies in Lit.
>19 and 20 Century Euro-American Poetics,
>	Feminist Philosophy
>The University of Texas-Dallas
>School of Arts and Humanities
>primary email: antiope3-AT-airmail.net
>secondary email: douve1-AT-hotmail.com
>
>Instructor, Art Institute of Dallas
>
>
>     --- from list french-feminism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


Michael Pennamacoor
SandwichDeSign
38 Sandown Lees
Sandwich
Kent CT13 9NZ
tel: 01304-617626
email: pennamacoor-AT-enterprise.net




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