Description
Book SynopsisProminent feminist theorist rethinks the relationship between evolution and the biological body through the study of three key figures--Darwin, Nietzsche, and Bergson.
Trade Review“Elizabeth Grosz traces a timely path through the work of three major thinkers. Darwin, Nietzsche, and Bergson, each in his own way, force a rethinking of duration and transformation at the interchange between nature and culture.
The Nick of Time suggestively connects their trajectories, drawing them together into a contemporary dialogue on the politics and philosophy of change.”—Brian Massumi, author of
Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation“Elizabeth Grosz’s
The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution and the Untimely is a major work. It achieves a richly nuanced and sweeping reconsideration of temporality in the context of contemporary feminist theory, critical theory, and theories of evolution. The considerations of Darwin, Nietzsche, Bergson, Deleuze, and Irigaray are especially impressive.
The Nick of Time is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how memory, historicity, and politics connect to and are reconfigured by temporality.”—N. Katherine Hayles, author of
How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics“Superbly written, deftly executed, and wonderfully instructive,
The Nick of Time is a first-class piece of writing and thinking. It is unique in that it is interested in ‘philosophy of life’ issues not only for their own sake but also because of Elizabeth Grosz’s wider theoretical and practical commitments, such as feminism and a radical cultural politics.”—Keith Ansell Pearson, author of
Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of DeleuzeTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction: To the Untimely 1
Part I. Darwin and Evolution
1. Darwinian Matters: Life, Force, and Change 17
2. Biological Difference 40
3. The Evolution of Sex and Race 64
Part II. Nietzsche and Overcoming
4. Nietzsche's Darwin 95
5. History and the Untimely 113
6. The Eternal Return and the Overman 135
Part III: Bergson and Becoming
7. Bergsonian Difference 155
8. The Philosophy of Life 185
9. Intuition and the Virtual 215
Conclusion: The Future 244
Notes 263
References 297
Index 309
