This book examines the relations among nostalgia, gender, and
foundational philosophies through a critique of the lost mother as
a ground for thinking about sexual difference. More specifically,
the author critiques the nostalgic tendencies of feminist theory,
arguing that an emancipatory system of thought must move beyond a
maternally oriented structure.
Through close readings of works by Maurice Blanchot, Luce Irigaray,
Julia Kristeva, and Nicole Brossard, the book elucidates the many
dimensions of nostalgic paradigms--literary, psychoanalytic,
epistemological, ontological, and sociopolitical. This critique
ultimately confronts postmodernism, and especially the burgeoning
field of performative theory, as an intellectual paradigm that
claims to subvert systems of meaning. Analyzing the writings of J.
L. Austin, Judith Butler, and Irigaray, the author argues that
despite its antinostalgic structure, performative theory provides
an inadequate model for understanding the connections among
language, identity, and the social bonds that constitute the
ethical and political sphere.
Asserting, through the example of performative theory, that a
critique is not enough, the book examines the possibility of a
constructive model that is both non-nostalgic and informed by
ethical constraints. One such model is offered through a reading of
the Quebecois writer Nicole Brossard, which explores her work in
relation to the question of lesbian writing. Demystifying
nostalgia, Brossard not only uncovers and subverts the structures
through which a concept of origins is produced, but also provides a
different, visionary way of thinking about the relationship between
subjectivity and language.
Finally, the book argues for further feminist work on the
relationship between narrative and ethics, a field whose future
lies in the elaboration of a bridge between the moral commitments
of ethical theory and the fractured realities that find their
expression in literary forms.
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