Luce Irigaray

L U C E I R I G A R A YLIPS, KISSING AND THE POLITICS OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCE An exploration of the often controversial French thinker and feminist Luce Irigaray. Kelly Ives discusses Luce Irigaray’s relation with Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and other feminists. Irigaray’s provocative notions include: labial lips embracing; sexual difference; the speculum; ’sexuate rights’ and sexual ethics; women’s language and power; angels; and female mystics. Luce Irigaray was born May 3, 1932 in Belgium (some sources say 1930). She studied at the University of Louvain; she worked on a master’s degree in psychology at the University of Paris (1959-62); and at the Institut de Psychologie de Paris (1962). From 1962-64 she worked at the Foundation Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in Belgium, and then at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Pars, where she eventually became Director of Research. She produced a doctoral degree in linguistics (University of Paris X at Nanterre, 1968), and in philosophy (University of Paris VIII, 1974). Irigaray was, famously, a member of the École Freudienne, presided over by Jacques Lacan. Irigaray’s second dissertation (Speculum de l’autre femme) created some controversy among the members of the Freudian School, and Irigaray became an outcast from the École Freudienne. This was a key setback in her academic career. In the 1970s and 1980s, Luce Irigaray taught at Rotterdam, Bologna, Toronto and Paris, among other places. With books such as Ce Sexe qui n’en est pas un, Et l’une ne bouge pas sans l’autre, Amante Marine: De Friedrich Nietzsche, Sexes et parentés, Sexes et genres à travers les langues and Le Oubli de l’air: Chez Martin Heidegger, Irigaray became a major international philosopher. The text has been revised and updated for this edition. Illustrated, with a revised text. European Writers Series. Bibliography and notes. 120pp. ISBN 9781861714510. www.crmoon.com CONTENTSAbbreviations • 9 Preface • 15 PART ONE : FRENCH FEMINISM 1 Introduction • 21 2 French Feminist Poetics: Feminist and Women’s Art • 27 3 Luce Irigaray, French Feminism, Sexuality, and Sexual Difference • 45 PART TWO : LUCE IRIGARAY 4 'Kiss My Lips': Luce Irigaray’s Philosophy of Sexual Difference • 69 Illustrations • 89 Notes • 99 Bibliography • 105 KELLY IVES has written widely on feminism, philosophy and art. Her previous books include Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva: The Jouissance of French Feminism, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous and Wild Zones: Pornography, Art and Feminism.