"This wonderful book does nothing less than to create the next stage of feminist thought." —Catharine R. Stimpson "De Lauretis provides a way of thinking about feminism that accepts rather than tries to resolve differences, that refuses ...

Julia Kristeva. alteration has been identified, one is able to detect a similar ferment in the essential writings of other historical periods. A few definitions or clarifications are in order. That there has been a conceptual "revolution" is, 1 believe, ...

Contemporary feminist debates over the meanings of gender lead time and again to a certain sense of trouble, as if the indeterminacy of gender might eventually culminate in the failure of feminism. Perhaps trouble need not carry such a..

After the success of the hardback, students and academics will welcome the publication of this book in paperback. The aim of the book is to explore the connection between two perspectives that have had a profound effect upon contemporary thought: post–modernism and feminism. Through bringing together and systematically analysing the relations between these, Hekman is able to make a major intervention into current debates in social theory and philosophy. The critique of Enlightenment knowledge, she argues, is at the core of (...) both post–modernism and feminism. Each also offers a basis for critical reflections about the other. In particular, post–modern philosophy provides a means of criticizing aspects of contemporary feminism and thus contributing to the development of a more sophisticated approach to current feminist issues. (shrink)

Jardine's command of French theory is awesome. Even more impressive is the fact that she manages to delve into the subject without ever losing sight of certain impertinent American questions. "-Jane Gallop, Department of French and Italian, Miami University Gynesis: from the Greek—gyn- signifying woman, and -sis designating process. In her book, Alice Jardine charts the territories and landscapes of contemporary French thought, focusing on such concepts as "woman" and "the feminine," and relating them to the problem of modernity. Interdisciplinary (...) in her approach, she confronts and addresses important psychoanalytic, philosophical, and fictional texts that are largely the work of male writers. In Part One Jardine charts the general boundaries of what she describes as the "problematization" of woman, and in Part Two she explores three major topologies of contemporary French thought—the breakdown of the Cartesian Subject, the default of Representation, and the demise of Man's Truth. Part Three analyzes the work of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze, three major French thinkers who, according to Jardine, are deeply involved in the process of gynesis, and discusses their readings of such writers as Marguerite Duras, Maurice Blanchot, and Michel Tournier. A final section turns to the question of comparativism by discussing male American and French writers—those self-consciously exploring the conceptual territories mapped in Part Two. Looking at her texts from the vantage point of an American feminist, Jardine voices the hope that feminism and modernity will not become mutually exclusive and, by the same token, that feminism will not grow less concerned with the question of female stereotyping. A brilliant and engaging book that will undoubtedly provoke controversy, Gynesis should find a large audience among students of contemporary thought—including feminists, literary and cultural critics, and philosophers. (shrink)

"There is hardly a page in this collection of hard-thought and brilliantly written essays that does not yield some new insight." —Hayden White "... de Lauretis's writing is brisk and refreshingly lucid." —International Film Guide.