A Politics of Impossible Difference

The influential philosopher and theorist Luce Irigaray has been faulted for giving more importance to sexual difference than to race and multiculturalism. Penelope Deutscher's eagerly awaited book, the first to focus on the scholar's controversial later works, addresses this charge. Through a learned critique of these lesser-known writings, the book examines Irigaray's claim that the politics of feminism and multiculturalism are intrinsically linked. The volume also serves as a clear and comprehensive introduction to her entire corpus.

In her recent works, Irigaray promotes sexual difference as the philosophical basis for legal, political, and linguistic reform. Deutscher explores this approach and in particular Irigaray's view that the very notion of difference is culturally "impossible."

Taking this concept of impossibility into consideration, Deutscher evaluates Irigaray's contributions to contemporary debates about the politics of identity, recognition, diversity, and multiculturalism. In a balanced discussion, she considers the philosopher's work from

Acknowledgments

vii

Introduction

1

(6)

Sexual Difference as a Basis of Equality: An Introduction to Irigarayan Politics

7

(16)

Irigaray on Language: From the Speech of Dementia to the Problem of Sexual Indifference

23

(19)

Rethinking the Politics of Recognition: The Declaration of Irigarayan Sexuate Rights

42

(14)

Irigarayan Performativity: Is This a Question of Can Saying It Make It So?

56

(18)

Sexuate Genre: Ethics and Politics for Improper Selves

74

(16)

Anticipating Sexual Difference: Mediation, Love, and Divinity

90

(17)

Interrogating an Unasked Question: Is There Sexual Difference?

107

(16)

The Impossible Friend: Traversing the Heterosocial, the Homosocial, and the Successes of Failure

123

(19)

Sexed Discourse and the Language of the Philosophers: To Be Two

142

(22)

Effacement Redoubled? Between East and West

164

(21)

Conclusion

185

(10)

Notes

195

(20)

References

215

(10)

Index

225

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A Politics of Impossible Difference

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Table of Contents

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A Politics of Impossible Difference

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Table of Contents

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