Sexual Subversions: Three French Feminists

by Elizabeth Grosz

Sexual Subversions introduces the works of three well known, if not well-read, French Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Micele Le Doeuff. It provides a map of an area where there are few detailed discussion of the achievements of these difficult, yet immensely rewarding, writers. In doing so, this overview raises issues of general relevance to feminist it participates in debates around the nature of feminist theory, the relations feminist intellectuals have to male dominated knowledges, and the strategies appropriate for developing non patriarchal, autonomous or woman-centred knowledges. No book in French feminists would be complete without including the contributions of Kristeva and Irigaray. The inclusion of Le Deouff's work, which brings a different perspective to bear on the question of sexual difference, provides a counterbalance to literary appropriations of French feminism by Anglo-American readerships. Kristeva, Irigaray and Le Deouff are the focal points of this study, precisely because each highlights the differences of the others, revealing the frameworks to which the others are committed. Nevertheless, while these writers do not present a common political or theoretical position or form a school, each addresses the question of women's autonomy from male definition, affirms the sexual specificity of women, seeks out a femininity women can use to question the patriarchal norms and ideals of femininity and rejects the preordained positions patriarchy allots to women.

Genres: Philosophy, Feminism, Nonfiction, Academic

262 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Elizabeth Grosz is a professor at Duke University. She has written on French philosophers, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Luce Irigaray and Gilles Deleuze.

Grosz was awarded a Ph.D. from the Department of General Philosophy at the University of Sydney, where she became a lecturer and senior lecturer from 1978 to 1991. In 1992, she moved to Monash University to the department of comparative literature. From 1999 to 2001, she became a professor of comparative literature and English at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She taught in Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University from 2002 until joining Duke University in 2012.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Alex Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly introductory text, an introduction to philosophical feminism from the French side of the pond. Grosz covers a large amount of material clearly and concisely. Although her reading at times seems simplified this is to convey the broad idea of the three thinkers she's sought to cover. Grosz is less interested in provoking heavy discussion than a merely 'straight' presentation of the material. Fairly adequate, good for an introduction low level Graduate or high level undergrad course.

Her conclusion does seem foreshortened, but that's because she meant to present a theme through a list-approach. The three thinkers, Kristeva, Irigaray and Le Doeuff have very little in common other than being women and other than attempting to understand subjectivity. Perhaps Grosz could have made this a better book by framing the discussion in terms of Simone De Beauvoir but that would have perhaps distracted from the material, because it would have crow-bared the discussion into a way that may have been unfair for these thinkers. On the one hand, we want to acknowledge their contribution in their own right. On the other hand, we want to sexualize the discussion because they are women, and what women do must inevitably be about their latent content... ironically this is a shadow of the very phallic centered critique all three thinkers circumambulate (but in different ways), sometimes not at all.

[Ruo Jia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have only read the two chapters on Irigaray so far. Quite incredibly structuralizing and clarifying the much ambiguous Irigaray (and in context, especially w Kristeva), very accessibly as based on course for undergrad. Want to read the Kristeva part or even the overall view of French theory part that came before.