Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the relations among nostalgia, gender, and foundational philosophies through a critique of the lost mother as a ground for thinking about sexual difference. More specifically, the author critiques the nostalgic tendencies of feminist theory, arguing that an emancipatory system of thought must move beyond a maternally oriented structure.
Through close readings of works by Maurice Blanchot, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, and Nicole Brossard, the book elucidates the many dimensions of nostalgic paradigmsliterary, psychoanalytic, epistemological, ontological, and sociopolitical. This critique ultimately confronts postmodernism, and especially the burgeoning field of performative theory, as an intellectual paradigm that claims to subvert systems of meaning. Analyzing the writings of J. L. Austin, Judith Butler, and Irigaray, the author argues that despite its antinostalgic structure, performative theory provides an inadequate model for understanding the connectio
Table of Contents
Introduction: maternal pasts Part I. Nostalgia: The Lost Mother: 1. Blanchot's mother 2. Lips in the mirror: Irigaray's specular mother Part II. Nostalgia and Ethics: Approaching the Other: 3. Imperialsit nostalgia: Kristeva's maternal Chora 4. Luce et veritas: toward an ethics of performance Part III. Toward Another Model: 5. From Lesbos to Montreal: Brossards's urban fictions Afterword: feminist futures Notes Bibliography Index.
