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Transforming Sacrifice: Irigaray and the Politics of Sexual Difference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Anne Caldwell
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Abstract

This essay examines Irigaray's analysis of politics and the political implications of her critique of sacrificial orders that repress difference/matter. I suggest that her descriptions of a fluid “feminine” can be read as an alternative symbolic not dependent on repression. This idea is politically promising in opening a possibility for justice and a nonantagonistic intersubjectivity. I conclude by assessing Irigaray's concrete proposals for sexuate rights and a civil identity for women.

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Type
Research Article
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Hypatia , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , Fall 2002 , pp. 16 - 38
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Copyright © 2002 by Hypatia, Inc.

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