Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism - Softcover

Grosz, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1863734155 ISBN 13: 9781863734158

Publisher: Routledge, 1994

Synopsis

Winner, Gleebooks Prize for Cultural and Literary Criticism, NSW Premier's Awards, 1995 Volatile Bodies is based on a risky wager: that all the effects of subjectivitiy, psychological depth and interiority can be refigured in terms of bodies and surfaces. It uses, transforms and subverts the work of a number of distinguished male theorists of the body (Freud, Lacan, Merleau-Ponty, Schilder, Nietzsche, Foucault, Lingis and Deleuze) who, while freeing the body from its subordination to the mind, are nonetheless unable to accomodate the specificities of women's bodies. Volatile Bodies explores various dissonances in thinking the relation between mind and body. It investigates issues that resist reduction to these binary terms - psychosis, hypochondria, neurological disturbances, perversions and sexual deviation - and most particularly the enigmatic status of body fluids, and the female body.

About this title

Review:

"... one of the best cultural studies books on theories of the body." - Passion " ... Grosz writes a thorough and philosophically well-crafted prolegomenon for a new corporeal feminism." - Signs "Working through an impressive range of theories, it raises important questions and ventures into new terrain which invites further exploration."- Rocky Mountain Review " ... a must-read for feminist scholars and for any serious scholar of the body." - Review "Volatile Bodies is an enlightening and critically significant addition to feminist discussions of embodiment, sexuality, and difference." - Masculinities "This is a lucidly written study, which sets out debates clearly for those not familiar with the field, while being impressive in its erudition." - Radical Philosophy "This is a text of rare erudition and intellectual force. It will not only introduce feminist to an enriching set of theoretical perspectives but set a high critical standard for feminist dialogues on the body." - Judith Butler "Because it both offers arms for counterviolence and a sharply critical read of the philosophical foundations of much of the new critical work in anthropology, the book is highly recommended ..." - American Anthropologist Elizabeth Grosz examines the corporeal experiences unique to women- menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause- to lay the groundwork for new theories of sexed corporeality.

Synopsis:

In this book, Elizabeth Grosz rethinks the notion of subjectivity, not in terms of the mind, subjectivity or interiority, but in terms of bodies and surfaces. A deconstruction and displacement of the mind/body opposition has traditionally privileged the mind at the expense of bodies. However, if bodies become the centre of analysis then certain issues and relations are given prominence: most strikingly the differences between sexually different bodies. In questioning feminist and philosophical presumptions about subjectivity, new directions for research are suggested. Elizabeth Grosz is the author of "Sexual Subversions" and "Jacques Lacan".

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1863734155
• ISBN 13: 9781863734158
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 268