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Receptacle/Chōra: Figuring the Errant Feminine in Plato's Timaeus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Emanuela Bianchi
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Abstract

This essay undertakes a reexamination of the notion of the receptacle/chōra in Plato's Timaeus, asking what its value may be to feminists seeking to understand the topology of the feminine in Western philosophy. As the source of cosmic motion as well as a restless figurality, labile and polyvocal, the receptacle/chōra offers a fecund zone of destabilization that allows for an immanent critique of ancient metaphysics. Engaging with Derridean, Irigarayan, and Kristevan analyses, Bianchi explores whether receptacle/chōra can exceed its reduction to the maternal-feminine, and remain answerable to contemporary theoretical concerns.

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Research Article
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Hypatia , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , Fall 2006 , pp. 124 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by Hypatia, Inc.

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