ABSTRACT
At first sight, the theoretical project of Luce Irigaray is a difficult place to look for ways to open up the space within feminist theory for consideration of the differences between women. A feminism of sexual difference suggests an in-built hierarchy of differences, an irreducible privilege being accorded to the question of sexual difference as ‘the issue of our age’ (Irigaray 1984:5). Irigaray has little to say herself about the differences race and nation may make, and some of the few references she has made to these issues are, as we shall see, problematic. To date, there has been little discussion within feminist theory of the problems and possibilities of bringing issues of race and nation into a sexual difference framework. Rosi Braidotti’s attempt to open up a space for these issues will be explored in detail in Chapter 5. In the next chapter, I will look at Judith Butler’s work in Bodies that Matter (1993a) to bring questions of race into conversation with both Irigaray and Lacan. But in general, engagements with sexual difference feminism have tended either to ignore the questions of race and nation, or simply to note that their absence within the framework is a problem that will need further exploration (but not in the article or book in question). Tina Chanter has made the stronger claim that Irigaray’s project to think otherness ‘otherwise’ (Chanter 1995:176) actually opens up a space for considering other differences such as race (1995:126), although, as we shall see, there are problems with the way she develops this argument, and it remains a very small part of her overall consideration of Irigaray’s work.
