and “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. and ” — Alphonso Lingis and “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. and ” — Judith ButlerVolatile 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 and “origin and ” outside of culture. Being the raw material of social and cultural organization, it is and “incomplete and ” 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 and “human and ” 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.

Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism PDF

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