On Spiders, Cyborgs and Being Scared: The Feminine and the Sublime

by Joanna Zylinska

This innovative book explores one of the most important concepts in contemporary cultural the sublime. Joanna Zylinska looks at the consequences of feminism and its rethinking of sexual differences, and how it has led to the sublime tradition. She argues that what is generally considered aesthetics can now be more productive thought of in terms of ethics instead. Looking at a range of diverse discourses—Orlan's carnal art, philosophies of the everyday, the French feminism of Cixous and Irigaray, and the gender theory of Judith Butler—Zylinska intertwines the boundaries of cultural theory and textual practice to produce an ethics of the feminine sublime.

Genres: Theory

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Joanna Zylinska is Professor of New Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is the author of Bioethics in the Age of New Media and the coauthor (with Sarah Kember) of Life After New Media: Mediation as a Vital Process, both published by the MIT Press.