The radical potential of the body: Pushing Irigarian psychoanalysis in a different direction

Jillian Leslie Canode, Purdue University

Abstract

In this dissertation I examine Luce Irigaray’s psychoanalytic theory of language in her early work in order to provide a map for the practical application of her work to my own theory about language and the female body. I contend that in speaking about the productions of their bodies, namely menstrual fluid, women are able to claim subjectivity and open a space within the social and political realms for a new kind of discourse. I also critique Irigaray’s later work, demonstrating that it is exclusionary in harmful ways, and that the elements that make it so exclusive – the claims that there are only two sexes and two genders – can be removed without harming her overall project. In chapter one I lay the groundwork for Irigaray’s critique of Lacanian psychoanalysis and the theory of language Jacques Lacan puts forth, and I delineate Irigaray’s theory of sexual difference and its import in imagining a new kind of language. In the second chapter I demonstrate the ways in which the male body has been revered to the detriment of the female body, and how menstruation has figured into the devaluing of the female body for centuries. This discussion of the body and its productions leads to the third chapter wherein I discuss the ways in which talking about the body can lead to social, cultural, political, and linguistic change. In the final chapter I lay out my critique of Irigaray’s more recent work; I highlight the ways in which it threatens to undo the progress her early work made, and I show that if Irigaray maintains her position on the duality of the sexes, she leaves out a plethora of possibilities for founding the peaceful communities based on love and respect she so vehemently supports.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

McBride, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Philosophy|Psychology|Gender studies

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