Differences

Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray famously insisted on their philosophical differences, and this mutual insistence has largely guided the reception of their thought. What does it mean to return to Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray in light of questions and problems of contemporary feminism, including intersectional and queer criticisms of their projects? How should we now take up, amplify, and surpass the horizons opened by their projects? Seeking answers tothese questions, the essays in this volume return to Beauvoir and Irigaray to find what the two philosophers share. And as the authors make clear, the richness of Beauvoir and Irigaray's thought far exceeds the reductive parameters of the Eurocentric, bourgeois second-wave debates that haveconstrained interpretation of their work. The first section of this volume places Beauvoir and Irigaray in critical dialogue, exploring the place of the material and the corporeal in Beauvoir's thought and, in doing so, reading Beauvoir in a framework that goes beyond a theory of gender and the humanism of phenomenology. The essays in the second section of the volume take up the challenge of articulating points of dialogue between the two focal philosophers in logic, ethics, and politics. Combined, these essays resituate Beauvoir andIrigaray's work both historically and in light of contemporary demands, breaking new ground in feminist philosophy.

... this collection has many strengths that render it an important and timely book in the fields of feminist philosophy and French philosophy ... the taste of the Differences leaves the reader thinking of the next meal, wondering where these exciting new flavors will lead.

Anne van Leeuwen's research is in 20th C. structuralism and post-structuralism, critical theory, and art and literature at James Madison University.Emily Anne Parker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Towson University. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray and is the editor of a special issue of the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology entitled Luce Irigaray: From Ecology to Elemental Difference.