Patterns of Dissonance: A Study of Women and Contemporary Philosophy

by Rosi Braidotti

Overview

This book is a brilliant and timely analysis of the complex issues raised by the relation between women and philosophy. It offers a critical account of a wide range of contemporary philosophical and feminist texts and it develops this account into an original project of critical feminist thought.

Braidotti examines contemporary French philosophy as practised by men such as Foucault and Derrida, showing that they rely on a notion of 'the feminine' in order to undermine classical thought, which bears no direct relevance to the historical experience of women.

Braidotti then looks at the attempts of contemporary feminist thinkers in Europe and the United States to show the gendered nature of discursive power games. She discusses the contributions of Luce Irigaray and many other feminist theorists to the understanding of sexual difference and of its implications for philosophy and politics. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in women's studies, feminist theory, social theory, cultural studies, philosophy and literature, and anyone interested in contemporary feminism and the relation between feminist theory, post-structuralism and psychoanalysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745665726
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	04/29/2013
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	326
File size:	517 KB

About the Author

Rosi Braidotti works in the fields of contemporary philosophy and literature. She has published work on feminist theory in Italian, French and English and has been translated into many other languages. She is Professor of Womens Studies at the University of Utrecht.

Table of Contents

1. Images of the Void.

2. Desidero Ergo Sum:.

The Improbable Tete-á-tete Between Philosophy and Psychoanalysis.

3. Un-Cartesian Routes: Foucault and Derrida.

4. Bodies, Texts and Powers.

5. The Becoming-Woman of Philosophy.

6. Towards a Philosophical Reading of Feminist Ideas.

7. Feminist Tactics in Philosophy, or:.

I Think Therefore He is.

8. Radical Philosophies of Sexual Difference, or:.

I Think Therefore She is.

Conclusion.