ABSTRACT

In this major new work, French philosopher Luce Irigaray continues to explore the issue central to her thought: the feminist redefinition of Being and Identity. For Irigaray, the notion of the individual is twinned with a reconceived notion of difference, or alterity. What does it mean to be someone? How can identity be created, or discovered, in relation to others? In To Be Two Irigaray gives new clarity to her project, grounding it in relation to such major figures as Sartre, Levinas, and Merleau-Ponty. Yet at the same time, she enriches her discussion with an attempt to bring the elements--earth, fire, water--into philosophical discourse. Even the polarities of heaven and earth come to play in this ambitious and provocative text. At once political, philosophical, and poetic, To Be Two will become one of Irigarary's central works.

chapter 1|16 pages

Prologue

chapter 2|13 pages

The wedding between the body and language

chapter 3|10 pages

Daughter and woman

chapter 4|8 pages

To perceive the invisible in you

chapter 5|6 pages

To love to the point of safeguarding you

chapter 6|8 pages

I announce to you that we are different

chapter 7|6 pages

To Conceive Silence

chapter 8|9 pages

Between us, a fabricated world

chapter 9|8 pages

She before the king

chapter 10|9 pages

Each transcendent to the other

chapter 11|9 pages

How can I touch you if you are not there?

chapter 12|10 pages

A mystery which illuminates

chapter 13|6 pages

Epilogue