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CLT4290/5290

Reading Irigaray

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

Elizabeth Grosz

8 or 12 points
* 2 hours per week
* Clayton

Objectives To introduce students to the difficult and commonly misunderstood writings of Luce Irigaray; to provide the conceptual, historical and logical tools necessary for a close reading of Irigaray's work; to provide the resources by which her contributions to feminist theory can be assessed in relation to other feminist theorists; and to provide the critical and expressive resources to enable students to write clear, concise, accurate and independent essays on topics related to this reading.

Synopsis This subject examines the work of one of the more difficult and rewarding of the key figures in contemporary French thought, the psychoanalyst, philosopher and linguist, Luce Irigaray. The subject will involve a detailed reading of the key texts of Irigaray, from her earliest publications in 1974 to her current writings. Irigaray has published broadly in a number of academic disciplines (including psychology, psychoanalysis, European philosophy, literature and linguistics) and covered a range of different issues (from questions in ontology and epistomology to key issues in economic exchange and theology). This subject will provide a rudimentary intellectual context to Irigaray's work, and then proceed chronologically from her earliest writings through to her most recent.

Assessment (8 points) Two essays (3000 words each): 50%

Assessment (12 points) Two essays (4500 words each): 50% each

Prescribed texts

Burke C and others (eds) Engaging Irigaray

Grosz E Sexual subversions: Three French feminists Allen and Unwin, 1989

Irigaray L Speculum of the other woman Cornell U P, 1985

Irigaray L This sex which is not one Cornell U P, 1985

Irigaray L Marine lover of Freidrich Nietzsche

Irigaray L Sexes and genealogies

Irigaray L Je, tous, nous

Irigaray L Elemental passions

Irigaray L An ethics of sexual difference

Whitford M (ed.) The Irigaray reader

Whitford M Luce Irigaray: Philosophy in the feminine


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