Yes / There is increasing recognition in management and organization studies of the importance of materiality as an aspect of discourse, while the neglect of materiality in post-structuralist management and organization theory is currently the subject of much discussion. This article argues that this turn to materiality may further embed gender discrimination. We draw on Luce Irigaray’s work to highlight the dangers inherent in masculine discourses of materiality. We discuss Irigaray’s identification of how language and discourse elevate the masculine over the feminine so as to offer insights into ways of changing organizational language and discourses so that more beneficial, ethicallyfounded identities, relationships and practices can emerge. We thus stress a political intent that aims to liberate women and men from phallogocentrism. We finally take forward Irigaray’s ideas to develop a feminist écriture of/for organization studies that points towards ways of writing from the body. The article thus not only discusses how inequalities may be embedded within the material turn, but it also provides a strategy that enriches the possibilities of overcoming them from within.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Media, Music, and Cultural Studies, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 303-332. / Carnal transcendence and sexual difference -- An amorous exchange -- Angels playing with placentas -- Fluid subjects -- Poetics -- Oneiric spaces -- Conclusion. / Carnal transcendence imagines a world in which the carnal has the weight and value of transcendence, and the divine is as liveable and readily evoked as the carnal. Carnal transcendence offers a means of thinking through difference in the work of Luce Irigaray, who asks: "why and how long ago did God withdraw from carnal love?" (1991a, p 16). This thesis argues that Irigaray enables her readers to explore the relationship between carnality, transcendence and difference, but resists elaborating it in her work. Carnal transcendence as difference risks remaining an exercise in rhetoric, rather than the transformative and creative philosophy that Irigaray imagines. -- Irigaray's resistance to the carnal is evident in her arguments for sexual difference, which offers our "salvation" if we think it through, and heralds "a new age of thought, art, poetry, and language: the creation of a new poetics" (1993a, p 5). Note the language of transcendence used here. When considered in the light of carnal transcendence, sexual difference imagines a differently sexed culture. This thesis argues that Irigaray's writing is contradictory on this point: it articulates the plurality of women's sexuality, but emphatically excludes theories of sex and gender that emphasise multiplicity. This thesis challenges these limitations by exploring the possibilities of the "other" couple in Irigaray's writing-mother and daughter - for thinking through carnal transcendence as difference. -- This thesis not only explicates a theoretical model for carnal transcendence as difference; it also attempts to put into practice a poetics - a playful rewriting of theory. This celebrates the carnality of Irigaray's writing - evident in her complex imagery of the two lips, mucus, the placenta and angels-and enables an exploration of the philosophical space of the "new poetics" that Irigaray is attempting to engender. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 332 p. ill (some col.)

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Media, Music, and Cultural Studies, 2009. / Bibliography: p. 303-332.

In her philosophical work, Luce Irigaray questions the universal genderless subject and advocates that it should be recognized as being implicitly male. As a result of this she proclaims a need for a new type of language, with a different set of logic, that is able to include women as subjects – which she calls “womenspeak”. In this essay I will account for Irigaray’s understanding of “womenspeak” in order to see if what she is describing also could work as a new understanding of art. “Womenspeak” is a language that defies logic, and contains contradictions without losing factuality – which also could be considered as a valid description of art. I will later argue that using Irigaray’s philosophy’s emphasis on practice, our conception of art could shift from being mainly oriented towards finished art works, to also include the artist’s practice, which would lead to a fuller understanding of art as a whole.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, the South African legal system's attempt to address sexual violence is explored through the lens of the work of the French feminist philosopher, Luce Irigaray. It will be argued that the South African equality jurisprudence lays the foundation for a strongly Irigarayan approach to the transformation of sex and gender relations in so far as our right to equality can be interpreted as being underpinned by an acknowledgment of embodiment, sexual particularity and difference. Our Constitution envisions equality as a value informed by difference rather than sameness and, in accordance with Irigaray’s work, it can be said that the implication of this is that the pursuit of the transformation of sex and gender relations on the one hand, and an acknowledgment of sexual difference on the other, are not mutually exclusive, but that sex equality instead calls for a fundamental recognition of sexual difference and an authentic response to the demands thereof. However, it will be argued that our newly reformed sexual violence legislation undermines the progress made on a constitutional level by entrenching a problematic approach to sexual difference in the definition of the crime of rape. This is done through firstly, defining the crime of rape in gender-neutral terms and secondly, retaining the concept of consent as the distinguishing characteristic between sex and rape. I will argue that through these features, our sexual violence legislation reflects the most basic mistakes that Irigaray identifies with the law. It will be argued that the legislation, on the one hand, denies sexual difference in a way that is prejudicial to women through its gender-neutral language, while at the same time, through the concept of consent, (re-)introducing a hierarchical construction of masculine and feminine sexuality into the Act in terms of which femininity is construed as derivative of, and inferior to, masculinity. Furthermore, the combination of the gender neutrality of the definition and the concept of consent exacerbates the situation, in so far as the gender neutrality masks the harmful construal of sexual difference that is incorporated in the definition through the concept of consent. Accordingly, judged from an Irigarayan perspective, the South African sexual violence legislation is deeply problematic. In addition, the legislation undercuts important constitutional developments, in so far as it ignores the constitutional insights that, firstly, sexual violence is a problem of sex inequality, and that secondly, the pursuit of the transformation of sex and gender relations is served, rather than undercut by a concern with particularities. On this basis, it is argued that the South African sexual violence legislation should be amended so that the concept of consent is removed and the crime of rape is defined in sex-specific language (while still allowing for male victims and female perpetrators) that facilitates judicial understanding of the complexities of the crime of rape. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis sal die Suid-Afrikaanse regsisteem se poging om seksuele geweld aan te spreek, deur die lens van die werk van Luce Irigaray, ‘n Franse feministiese filosoof, ondersoek word. Daar sal geargumenteer word dat die Suid-Afrikaanse gelykheidsjurisprudensie ‘n grondslag vir ‘n sterk Irigarayiese benadering tot die transformasie van geslagsverhoudinge lê, in soverre ons reg op gelykheid geïnterpreteer kan word om in ‘n erkenning van beliggaming, seksuele spesifiekheid en verskil (“difference”) begrond te wees. Ons Grondwet stel gelykheid as ‘n waarde wat deur verskil eerder as eenvormigheid geïnformeer is, voor oë, en in lyn met die werk van Irigaray, kan daar gesê word dat die implikasie hiervan is dat die nastrewing van die transformasie van geslagsverhoudinge aan die een kant, en die erkenning van geslagsonderskeid (“sexual difference”) aan die ander, nie wedersyds uitsluitlik is nie, maar dat geslagsgelykheid eerder juis ‘n fundamentele erkenning van geslagsonderskeid en ‘n outentieke reaksie op die eise daarvan, noop. Daar sal egter geargumenteer word dat ons nuuthervormde wetgewing oor seksuele geweld die vordering wat op ‘n grondwetlike vlak gemaak is, ondermyn deur ‘n problematiese benadering tot geslagsonderskeid in die definisie van die misdaad van verkragting te verskans. Dit word bewerkstellig deur eerstens, die misdaad van verkragting in geslagsneutrale taal te formuleer, en tweedens, om die begrip van toestemming as onderskeidende kenmerk tussen seks en verkragting, te behou. Ek sal argumenteer dat dit deur hierdie eienskappe is, wat ons wetgewing oor seksuele geweld die mees basiese probleme wat Irigaray in die reg identifiseer, weerspieël. Daar sal voorgehou word dat die wetgewing, aan die een kant, deur die geslagsneutrale taal, geslagsonderskeid ontken op ‘n manier wat vrouens benadeel, terwyl dit terselfdertyd, deur die begrip van toestemming, ‘n hiërargiese verhouding tussen die manlike en die vroulike in die wetgewing daarstel, in terme waarvan die vroulike as derivatief en minderwaardig tot die manlike verstaan word. Verder, die situasie word deur die kombinasie van die geslagsneutraliteit van die definisie en die begrip van toetsemming, vererger deurdat die geslagsneutraliteit van die taal die skadelike vertolking van geslagonderskeid wat deur die begrip van toestemming in die definisie ingesluit word, verberg. Dus, vanuit ‘n Irigarayiese perspektief is die Suid-Afrikaanse wetgewing oor seksuele geweld diep problematies. Verder, die wetgewing ondermyn belangrike grondwetlike ontwikkelinge in soverre dit die volgende grondwetlike insigte ignoreer: eerstens, dat seksuele geweld ‘n probleem van geslagsongelykheid is en tweedens, dat die strewe na transformasie van geslagsverhoudinge gedien, eerder as ondermyn word deur ‘n besorgdheid met die partikuliere. Op hierdie gronde word daar geargumenteer dat die Suid-Afrikaanse wetgewing oor seksuele geweld gewysig behoort te word, deur die begrip van toestemming te verwyder en die misdaad te definieer in geslagspesifieke taal (op ‘n manier waardeur manlike slagoffers en vroulike oortreders steeds ingesluit word) wat geregtiglike begrip van die kompleksiteite van die misdaad van verkragting bemiddel.

<p>Sarah Kane’s first play Blasted (1995) has often been read in a normative and biographical way by critics, authors and previous researchers. This essay makes a supplementary close reading of Blasted from gender and genealogical perspectives and utilizes theoretical works by Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Michel Foucault. My study makes clear that the characters different positions in language and talk create and maintain a power imbalance between them. Efforts to change and develop one’s individual position in language and talk are being made throughout the play since it is the only way to bring about a change in the social power structure. A fact that in turn also subsequently punishes those efforts. By analyzing the tools of representation, Kane points out a direct link between a violent power imbalance in a couples relationship and the violence of a war zone. In Blasted, it is revealed how violence in a private situation is mirrored in a situation of public violence and how the public violence, in turn, crawls back to the private zone and there repeats itself. By forcing one of the main characters to regress back to the infancy of language and from there alter the ability to act within the framework of human interrelations, Kane demonstrates how a change in social structures can be made, and as is shown in this essay, this indicates that a knowledge of how the social structures are being maintained and how they in turn can be disarranged, is what is required to create an opportunity for change.</p>

This thesis investigates some motifs in the fiction of Québec writer Anne Hébert (1916-2000), largely by exploring interesting affinities with notions in the philosophy of Luce Irigaray (1930-). The main focus is on the young female characters and their way to adulthood in three of Hébert’s books: her first novel, Les chambres de bois (LCB, 1958) and two of her later works, Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle et le Lieutenant anglais (AC, 1995) and Est-ce que je te derange ? (ECD, 1998). The study also addresses the situation of the male characters and the difficulties which confront them within a phallocentric order. It is argued that a comparison with features of Irigaray’s thought can shed light both on the emancipatory and the conservative tendencies in the novels. In particular, it is Irigaray’s notion of mimesis that proves to be fruitful for a deeper understanding of the female protagonists in the analysed works, but her specific use of the Oidipus complex, and her vision of a culture of sexual difference, also give important clues for the interpretation of both male and female figures in Herbert’s texts. With regard to LCB, it is shown that it is only when the female protagonist consciously positions herself as a reflection of male desire, as a mimetic figure, that substantial change comes about. In AC the female character is an incarnation of “utopian mimesis” and represents a new order. In ECD the female protagonist functions as a manifestation of a “symptomatic mimesis” and thereby becomes a catalyst for the revelation of the repressed sensibility of the male subject. Irigaray’s reading of the Oidipus complex is used to evince the utopian tendencies in AC, but also to explore how the male characters of all three works are stuck in a denied repetition of their childhood, which leaves little room for change. Irigaray’s vision of a culture of sexual difference provides a comprehensive picture of a place towards which all three novels can be seen to aim.

Sarah Kane’s first play Blasted (1995) has often been read in a normative and biographical way by critics, authors and previous researchers. This essay makes a supplementary close reading of Blasted from gender and genealogical perspectives and utilizes theoretical works by Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Michel Foucault. My study makes clear that the characters different positions in language and talk create and maintain a power imbalance between them. Efforts to change and develop one’s individual position in language and talk are being made throughout the play since it is the only way to bring about a change in the social power structure. A fact that in turn also subsequently punishes those efforts. By analyzing the tools of representation, Kane points out a direct link between a violent power imbalance in a couples relationship and the violence of a war zone. In Blasted, it is revealed how violence in a private situation is mirrored in a situation of public violence and how the public violence, in turn, crawls back to the private zone and there repeats itself. By forcing one of the main characters to regress back to the infancy of language and from there alter the ability to act within the framework of human interrelations, Kane demonstrates how a change in social structures can be made, and as is shown in this essay, this indicates that a knowledge of how the social structures are being maintained and how they in turn can be disarranged, is what is required to create an opportunity for change.

I investigate the ghosts in Elizabeth Bowen’s short stories, “Green Holly” and “The Happy Autumn Fields.” By blending psychoanalytic feminism and social feminism, I argue that these female ghosts are the incommensurable feminine—a feminine that exceeds the bounds of phallocentric logic and cannot be defined by her social or symbolic manifestations. An analysis of Bowen’s ghosts as actual ghosts is uncharted territory. Previous Bowen critics postulate that Bowen’s ghosts are imaginary figments or metaphors. These critics make Bowen’s stories “truthful” representations of the world, but, as such, Bowen’s ghosts become representations of the world’s phallocentric order. In contrast, I argue that these stories adopt a mestiza consciousness. Gloria Anzaldùa postulates that through a subaltern perspective developed outside of western logic, the mestiza reclaims the supernatural that exists outside of the masculine, symbolic order. The female ghosts are the feminine that Luce Irigaray explains, “remain[s] elsewhere” (76) as they live incommensurably in an alternate supernatural realm, disrupting phallic logic.

Appendix C contains video files which were unable to be uploaded onto the institutional repository, but are available with the hard copy of the thesis. / Is female subjectivity possible within a patriarchal system? The following discussion investigates feminist thought though equality, difference and androgyny, mapping the achievements, setbacks, advantages and disadvantages of each through the theories of Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva and others. Discussing Irigaray’s thoughts on disrupting the symbolic with mimesis and hysteria, how intersubjectivity might be possible through a syntax appropriate to women and the possibility of female genealogies through craft and the work of artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Eva Hesse. Derrida’s theory of Différance is used in relation to Irigaray’s ideas of difference and morphology. And allows for Kristeva’s thoughts on the essential meaning of language being in a constant state of flux and therefore fixed definitions of identity are pointless. Virginia Woolf’s use of androgyny and modernist style in her writing is considered in relation to Kristeva’s ideas of revolutionary writing, and how destructive fixed gendered identities can be. The deconstruction of masculine and feminine identities is advocated by Kristeva to allow for individuality and subjectivity.