Nomadic subjects embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory

345 Pages·2011·13.418 MB·English

by  Braidotti, Rosi

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FOR MORE THAN FIFTEEN YEARS, Nomadic Subjects has guided discourse in continental philosophy d
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and feminist theory, exploring the constitution of contemporary subjectivity, especially the concept of t
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difference within European philosophy and political theory. Rosi Braidotti’s creative style vividly renders i
nomadic subjects
a productive crisis of modernity. From a feminist perspective, she recasts embodiment, sexual difference,
and complex concepts through relations to technology, historical events, and popular culture.
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This thoroughly revised and expanded edition retains all but two of Braidotti’s original essays, including
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her investigations into epistemology’s relation to the “woman question”; feminism and biomedical eth-
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ics; European feminism; and the possible relations between American feminism and European politics
and philosophy. A new piece integrates Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the “becoming-minoritarian”
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more deeply into modern democratic thought, and a chapter on methodology explains Braidotti’s meth-
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ods while engaging with her critics. A new introduction muses on Braidotti’s provocative legacy.
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“For all of those seeking a positive turn building on the powerful tradition of critique that so

influenced the academy in recent decades, Braidotti offers an understanding of philosophy—of s
thinking—that she views as crucial to creative production. At a time when intellectual discourse u
is becoming increasingly disciplinary, Braidotti opens a path for broad discussion and debate.”
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—Elizabeth Weed, Brown University
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e embodiment and sexual difference
“Braidotti’s conceptual analysis is more relevant now than ever. Written in her inimitable style, this
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in contemporary feminist theory
second edition lays out the conceptual foundations Braidotti’s later writing puts to work.”
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—Amy Allen, Dartmouth College s
“This second edition reestablishes Braidotti as one of the most vibrant and important thinkers in
poststructuralist feminism and adds to the first edition’s key essays a selection of more recent e
inm
work, concluding with an in-depth interview that clearly and frankly relates Braidotti’s perspec- cb
tive to other positions in feminism, queer theory, and identity politics.” onod
—Eugene W. Holland, Ohio State University teim
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“This book exceeds the hyperboles one wants to draw upon to describe great books. By its title ort a
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alone, Nomadic Subjects promises to avoid the clichés, oppositions, and warring political divides rd
that have come to mark theory. Critical of the glibness of the present yet avoiding easy nostal- y fe se
gia or utopianism, Braidotti’s work signals a new style adequate for twenty-first century horizons. mxu
Hers is a nomadic theory, refusing to be anchored in any camp or tradition yet a remarkable affir- inisal d
mbuatteios no fo sf etlhfe-p sousbsjeescsti,o env,e sne liff- trheflate csutibojne,c atn bde aserslf n-coonnes ocifo tuhsen uessus.a Fl o(arn adn ynoonwe r wathhoe rf eteirless soommee)w ahttarti- t theiffer
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jaded or beleaguered by theory, this book is a tonic, sounding the tone of the future.” rync second edition
—Claire Colebrook, Penn State University e
Rosi Braidotti was born in Italy, raised in Australia, graduated from the Sorbonne
in Paris, and became the founding professor of the women’s studies program in
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Utrecht. She is Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University and found- o
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ing director of its Centre for the Humanities. m
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GENDER AND CULTURE SERIES ISBN: 978-0-231-15389-8 rosi braidotti
Columbia University Press / New York
www.cup.columbia.edu
9 780231 153898
Cover image ©2008 Natascha Unkart
Cover design by Noah Arlow Printed in the U.S.A.
nomadic subjects
gender and culture
Gender and Culture
A Series of Columbia University Press
Nancy K. Miller and Victoria Rosner, Series Editors
Carolyn G. Heilbrun (1926–2003) and Nancy K. Miller, Founding Editors

In Dora’s Case: Freud, Hysteria, Feminism
Edited by Charles Bernheimer and Claire Kahane
Breaking the Chain: Women, Theory, and French Realist Fiction
Naomi Schor
Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Romantic Imprisonment: Women and Other Glorified Outcasts
Nina Auerbach
The Poetics of Gender
Edited by Nancy K. Miller
Reading Woman: Essays in Feminist Criticism
Mary Jacobus
Honey-Mad Women: Emancipatory Strategies in Women’s Writing
Patricia Yaeger
Subject to Change: Reading Feminist Writing
Nancy K. Miller
Thinking Through the Body
Jane Gallop
Gender and the Politics of History
Joan Wallach Scott
The Dialogic and Difference: “An / Other Woman” in Virginia Woolf and Christa Wolf
Anne Herrmann
Plotting Women: Gender and Representation in Mexico
Jean Franco
Inspiriting Influences: Tradition, Revision, and Afro-American Women’s Novels
Michael Awkward
Hamlet’s Mother and Other Women
Carolyn G. Heilbrun
Rape and Representation
Edited by Lynn A. Higgins and Brenda R. Silver
Shifting Scenes: Interviews on Women, Writing, and Politics in Post-68 France
Edited by Alice A. Jardine and Anne M. Menke
continued on page 335
nomadic subjects
embodiment and sexual diff erence
in contemporary feminist theory
SECOND EDITION
rosi braidotti
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
continued on page 335 New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Braidotti, Rosi.
Nomadic subjects: embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary
feminist theory / Rosi Braidotti. — 2nd ed.
p. cm. — (Gender and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15388-1 (cloth: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-15389-8
(pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Feminist theory. 2. Sex differences. 3. Body—Social aspects. I. Title.
II. Title: Embodiment and sexual difference in contemporary feminist theory.
III. Series.
HQ1190.B74 2011
305.4201—dc22 2010035487
○∞
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither
the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for Web sites that may have
expired or changed since the book was prepared.
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 3
one By Way of Nomadism 21
two Contexts and Generations 67
three Sexual Difference Theory 91
four On the Female Feminist Subject:
From “She-Self” to “She-Other” 116
five Sexual Difference as a Nomadic Political Project 137
six Organs Without Bodies 167
seven Images Without Imagination 189
eight Mothers, Monsters, and Machines 213
nine Discontinuous Becomings: Deleuze
on the Becoming-Woman of Philosophy 245
ten Envy and Ingratitude: Men in Feminism 263
eleven Conclusion: Geometries of Passion—
a Conversation with Rosi Braidotti 283
Notes 295
Bibliography 299
Index 319

Acknowledgments

M
y heartfelt gratitude goes primarily to Jennifer Crewe, my publisher,
who instigated this project and supported it throughout. Nancy
Miller was enthusiastic and supportive as ever; Elizabeth Weed’s insight-
ful comments were most welcome. Thanks also to Claire Colebrook for
her inspiration and lucid criticism and to Clare Hemings, Patrick Hana-
fin, and Lisa Baraiter for their careful reading of my texts. I am very grate-
ful to the dean of my faculty, Wiljan van der Akker, for doing everything
in his power to create work conditions conducive to completing this book.
I wish to thank many generations of research assistants whose help with
bibliographical details and editing was precious: Stephanie Paalvast did
an amazing job in the final round, but, before her, Marleen and Pauline
Vincenten, Sandra Solomon, Valeska Hovener, Kristl van Eijk, and Eva
Midden provided vital assistance. I also profited enormously from the
comments and support of former students and younger colleagues: Bolette
Blaagaard and Iris van der Tuin, Maayke Botman, Rutvica Andrijasevic,
Cecilia Alsberg, Sarah Bracke, Esther Captain and Griet Roets were espe-
cially supportive. There are too many graduate students I should thank for
the inspiration and the vitality, so I thank them all collectively. A special
word of thanks and praise for Esther Rinkens, the executive manager of
the Centre for the Humanities, whose efficient management, loyalty, and
harmonious disposition created time for my writing, and also to Lianne
Toussaint. All my gratitude to Natasha Unkart, my favorite photographer,
who designed the stunning cover. To my brother Gus and my sister Gio.
For their unfailing enthusiasm.
Special thanks to Anneke Smelik for an amazing life together.

I wish to thank the publishers for granting permission to reprint the
following:
“Organs Without Bodies” in differences, no. 1 (1989): 147–161. Translated
into Italian: “Il corpo come mosaico,” Rinascita, no. 10 (January 15, 1990):
68–71. Translated into Danish: “Organer uden kroppe,” Forum for Kvinde-
forskning, no. 11 (May 1991): 40–50. Earlier draft: “Des organes sans corps,”
Les Cahiers du Grif, no. 36 (1987): 7–22.
“Body-Images and the Pornography of Representation,” in Gender
Studies, no. 2 (1991): 137–151. Reprinted in Tijdschrift voor Vrouwenstudies,
no. 47 (1991): 356–371.
“Re-figuring the Subject,” in H. Kunneman, ed., Whose Enlightenment?
(Amsterdam: Kok Agora, 1993).
“Ethics Revisited: Women and/in Philosophy,” in E. Gross and C.
Paterman., eds., Feminist Challenges (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1980), pp.
44–60. Translated into Serbo-Croatian: Filosofsza/strzivanja, no. 1 (1986):
44–60.
“The Politics of Ontological Difference,” in T. Brennan, ed., Between
Feminism and Psychoanalysis (New York: Routledge, 1989), pp. 89–105.
Translated into Dutch: “De politiek van de ontologische differentie,” Tijd-
schrift voor Vrouwenstudies, no. 36 (1988): 375–389.
“On the Female Feminist Subject, or: From ‘She-self’ to ‘She-other,’” in
G. Bock and S. James, eds., Beyond Equality and Difference: Citizenship,
Feminist Politics, and Female Subjectivity (New York: Routledge, 1992).
“The Ethics of Sexual Difference: The Case of Foucault and Irigaray,”
Australian Feminist Studies, no. 3 (1986): 1–13. Reprinted as “The Proble-
metic of ‘the Feminine’ in Contemporary French Philosophy: Foucault
and Irigaray,” in T. Threadgold and A. Cranny-Francis, eds., Feminine/
Masculine and Representation (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989).
“Envy, or: With Your Brains and My Looks,” in A. Jardine and P. Smith,
eds., Men in Feminism (New York: Methuen, 1987), pp. 233–241.
“The Subject in Feminism,” Utrecht, 1990. Text of the inaugural lec-
ture to mark the official opening of the women’s studies departments at
viii Acknowledgments
the University of Utrecht. Reprinted in Hypatia 6, no. 2 (Summer 1991):
155–172.
“United States of Europe or United Colours of Benetton? Feminist
Thoughts on the New European Space,” with C. Franken, in differences 2,
no. 4 (1991): 109–121. Translated into Dutch: “Als vrouw is de hele wereld
mijn land,” Lover 91, no. 3 (1991): 159–164.
“The Migrant, the Exile and the Nomad,” Women’s Studies Interna-
tional Forum 15, no. 1 (1992): 7–10.
“Theories of Gender, or: Language Is a Virus,” in C. MacDonald and
G. Wihl, eds., Transformations: The Language of Personhood and Culture
After Theory (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1993).
“Discontinuous Becomings. Deleuze and on the Becoming-Woman
of Philosophy,” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 24, no. 1
(January 1993): 33–55.
“Mothers, Monsters and Machines” in Nina Lykke et al., eds., The
Nature of the Body/the Body of Nature (Odense: Odense University Press,
1993).

Acknowledgments ix