Irigaray and Deleuze

For Tamsin Lorraine, the works of Luce Irigaray and Gilles Deleuze open up new ways of thinking about subjectivity. Focusing on the affinities between the theorists' views—while addressing weaknesses of each—she offers both a cogent analysis of their...

Tamsin Lorraine is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Swarthmore College. She is the author of Gender, Identity, and the Production of Meaning.

In her latest book, Irigaray and Deleuze: Experiments in Visceral Philosophy, Tamsin Lorraine... makes the work of Irigaray and Deleuze accessible and applicable to contemporary social problems... By explaining their terminology in accessible ways with practical applications for social life, Lorraine's book does what no other book does as well: it makes the work of Irigaray and Deleuze meaningful for our everyday lives... This book is an important contribution to the scholarship on these figures as well as a powerful intervention into critiques of the mind/body problem in philosophy and feminist theory. Her clear style and attention to everyday concerns make this book a pleasure to read.

What is still needed is a more thorough working through of Irigaray's political, ethical, and epistemological message. Lorraine's book, as clearly writtten as it is courageous, is a contribution to the process. Not only does it tell us what we can learn from Irigaray, but it encourages us to follow her message....Her text continuously invites its readers to consider not only their own philosophical standpoints, but also their motives for having them.

Lorraine has here produced a very clear and readable discussion of the work of Luce Irigaray and Gilles Deleuze... Her writing is straightforward and direct, and her analyses... are clearly argued....Lorraine opens up some interesting possibilities.

Cynthia Willett, Emory University:

Tamsin Lorraine offers an extraordinarily systematic, thorough, and clear presentation of the philosophies of Irigaray and Deleuze. What makes Lorraine's book so helpful is that it introduces these philosophers in such a way as to delve deeply into the full range and complexity of their thought while remaining focused on a core question—the mind-body problem—in a prose style that is straightforward and accessible.