/~ontesting the Oedipal Legacy "
Deleuzean vs Psychoanalytic Feminist Critical Theory
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1.
Psychoanalysis
1.1.
Alice Doesn't: Teresa de Lauretis'
and Feminism:
Disobedient
Daughters
2.
Loyal to the Law: Judith Butler's
2.1.
Butler's Use of Foucault and Its Limits
97
2.2.
Psychoanalytic
J08
2.3.
. .. and Foucault's
2.4.
Oedipus Eternalised:
Psychoanalytic
Lense 93
Parting Pains
Butler. ..
121
Response
135
Parodic Performances
3.
Beyond Daddy-Mommy-Me:
3.1.
From Foucault to Deleuze
Towards a Deleuzean
155
3.2.
Oedipalisation
163
3.3.
Schizoanalysis:
3.4.
Deleuze and Feminism
3.5.
The Feminist Backlash:
Attempted
Fusions
211
4.
Cultural Critique as Schizoanalytic
Practice
221
4.1.
Sarah Kane Between Rhizomatics
A Practice
Methodology
152
177 194
4.1.1. 4.48 Psychosis
224 227
4.1.2. Crave
250
and Psychiatry
As a result of the submission
of this thesis, written in the field of Critical Theory
at the School of Modern Languages Doctor of Philosophy whose constructive production
(Nottingham),
I was awarded the degree of
in June 2003. The thesis was supervised criticism,
detailed
of this thesis possible.
comments
by Jon Simons,
and moral support
made the
I cannot thank him enough for his patience
and commitment. Claire Colebrook,
external
examiner,
this thesis, gave me invaluable
and James Penney,
feed-back
search, which, as a result of an inspiring into both directions
- the Deleuzean
internal examiner
and ideas for further, post-doctoral and challenging
and the Lacanian
sent. I sincerely thank them for a most stimulating
of re-
viva voce, will venture perspectives
they repre-
debate and their thorough en-
gagement with my work. Working
at Signum Publishing
in Hamburg
for the greatest part of writing this
thesis, I have to genuinely
thank Sigmund Prillwitz
cellent working conditions
and for tolerating
Having
been introduced
to my work at the Centre of Women's,
Queer Studies at the University would
theoretically
of Hamburg, Johanna Meyer-Lenz
fit into and encouraged
Geschlecht-Kultur-Gesellschaft Gesellschaft ranging
features
of
the
analyses
which, I hope, my Deleuzean
me to publish
LIT
an interdisciplinary
from historical
and Wolfgang
Loh for ex-
my frequent absent-mindedness.
Verlag.
Gender
and
felt my thesis with the series
Geschlecht-Kultur-
series of authors on Gender Studies,
to sociological
debates
on identity
stance will make a valuable contribution
politics to. I very
much thank the editors of the series for their interest in my work. This thesis also benefitted
greatly from inspiring
ideas with Philip Goodchild
and Barbara
toral circle at the Humboldt-University regularly
meet with; the debates
'Dialog zwischen den Disziplinen' Studies
at the University
Kennedy;
discussions Christina
and exchange
of
von Braun's doc-
of Berlin which I was kindly invited to
stimulated
by the readers of the lecture series
at the Centre of Women's, Gender and Queer
of Hamburg;
as well as from exchange
and debates
with the co-founders
of the on-line publishing
forum www.gender-kritik.de.es-
pecially Annette Geiger, Maren Witte, Stefanie Rinke and Hedwig Wagner. A range of Anglophone In the following, with priceless
I would like to thank those who have contributed
and fundamental
emotional
support
to this thesis
and whose influence
in my
life provided the ignition sparks for this body of research.
sis to argue the female experience structures
of contemporary
Butler use psychoanalysis universality
Knut Schmiedel
endured my deterritorialisations
ing support. He is my idol in courage,
with loving patience and trust-
and for all his assistance,
especially
ing the last year, I return much love, admiration
and deep gratitude.
Yasmene
McGray
dur-
within the Department
Ridon,
Anna Kirchner
thank for daily support in Hamburg; I am especially
unforgettable;
der identities
and Olaf Sanders, for exchange
grateful to Mark Schmiedel,
I
of ideas and
for his warmth, and for
teaching me to dance, and to John Hughes, who designed and kindly allowed me to print the cover image. And thank you, Malcolm Deleuze one sad November
Imrie, for introducing
morning in 1995. 'You went to university
did not teach you on Gilles Deleuze?' and complained ... !
Finally but most importantly,
me to
and they
Well, you know us Germans, I went back
and trust that nour-
serenity and patience provided
of turmoil, and his sparkle lit up dark Hamburg when he is around, and nothing seems impossible.
stability in times
days: everything
is brighter
seems to be a month of departure,
promise rebirth. Jennifer Ann Schmiedel,
pression
of women.
heterosexual
before the lights of the Advent
nee Bryan (t 18.11.200 1), taught me to
my choice of paths with trust and the estimable
go. This thesis has grown from this trust, and is dedicated wit, laughter and lightness: to forget.
gen-
ones Western society curthese identities
with which they theorise subjectivation:
by theorising
and the
the existence of alternative
the stereotypical
Even if psychoanalytic
identities
or Judith
necessitated
feminism
by Oedipalised
can account
the social construction
i.s
to unveIl and opfor non-
of heterosexual
de-
sire, they cannot escape a logic in which these identities continue to lack the union with the (m)other. Hence, if woman continues to be associated
with her sex,
she will remain what will always have to be fetishised and repressed. The aim of psychoanalytic
feminism to 'liberate'
been traditionally
subjectified
ties that do not fit the objectified prescribes,
women from the Oedipal dogma w~ hav.e
into, to allow for the conception woman that patriarchal
is thereby repeatedly
I argue that in order to account for alternative construct
of gender Identi-
society and Oedipal
foiled. gender identities
we have to d~-
the binary structure of sex as well as of gender. If we are not enunCl-
ated as woman but as a thousand tiny sexes, we escape a molar notion of identity we can never fulfill, and which will render us lacking. This lack, if theorised
value the now and to trust in the future. She always tried to understand tures, supporting
on the psychic
essentialism
I will argue that their effort to disclose
through psychoanalysis, November
biological
gender identities behind the masquerades
socialisation
it was Tom MUller's resilience
ished this thesis. His generosity,
in order to deconstruct
within and underneath
rently prescribes.
is contingent
society through psychoanalysis does not help to stop the objectification
Caro-
and Beate Aschenbrenner
of oppression
society. Jane Gallop, Teresa de Lauretis
thwarted by the methodology
and lively discussions
of Critical Theory made Nottingham
line de Grahl, Ronja Hackmann, inspiration.
Rebecca
feminist theorists employ psychoanaly-
of the Oedipal complex, suggesting
alternative Shah, Jean-Xavier
poststructuralist
my ven-
ability to let
incarcerates
us in a losing position, whereas the a~m of
feminism should be to enable the articulation ence. This, I believe, is not achieved and/or sex', but in an unknown to articulate
of a positive affirmation
in merely defining
multitude,
a plurality
or, to speak Deleuzean:
n-l gender'. We have to find a theoretical
language
of dIfferof gender
in the ability with which to
to her love, beauty,
to her memory that no place, no time, will teach me
, such as Anne Fausto-Sterling who argued for the existence of five different sexes in The Sciences, March-April 1993, pp. 20-4. . . 2 n-l is a mathematical formula described by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1987) m their A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and ShiZOl'hrenia. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, p:6. Whereas n is part of a whole, n-l is part of something that is always becoming: we have to trace a lme of fhght
present them and grant them existence, critical theory has not accomplished. terminology
psychoanalytic
which, I argue, psychoanalytic
theory is based on, and which I will reveal over the
course of this thesis. This terminology a binary dialectic
feminist
The reason for this failure is the ambiguous can, in all attempts, not be removed from
that freezes man and woman in separate
realms, from where
The popularity perceivable
of psychoanalytic
commentary
in Western
such as The Independent
Die Zeit or Die Welt in Germany.
or The Guardian
His analyses
There is nothing wrong in believing
the cultural ministry of the county of Northrhine- Westphalia
man and woman. There is, though, an intrinsic
dilemma
in trying to theorise a
change in their relation from within this binary opposition, explained
in psychoanalytic
tion between precondition
terms. A psycho-logic
the sexes based on man's
if this opposition
need to control the (m)other,
will sustain a warring relation.
of the phallus, and
this phallus will, in spite of all feminist critique and reinterpretation, with male supremacy.
and this
'There is no sexual relation '" argues
Lacan; there is no union without the promise of the exchange associated
is
will reiterate a fixed interac-
A dissociation
always be
to a feminist progress.
on film analysis or alternative ludi's Backlash' of Hollywood
all efforts
Since the theoretical
new
or in academic discourse.
or the interpretation
of dramatic the possibility
of alternative
to report about
gender identities or change within gender relations,
structures
the seen or heard immediately
of psychoanalytic
hinders, I argue, the perception
onto an
change in gender relations.
count for difference
is a summary
of Lucan's Grosz
elaborations
(1990)
as it does not describe
feminism has the potential to acof gender and sex. Hence, this vs Deleuzean
feminism
where we can articulate enunciation
resistance
of women in patriarchy
and non-sexed
as the base for resistance.
This resistance
on the phallus Lacan:
as signifier A feminist
ordering introduction.
logic that cannot articulate
the ratio of London:
"Wolf, S
Naomi (1991): The Beauty Myth. London:
Faludi, Susan (1993): Backlash.
The Undeclared
Vintage. War Against
Women. London:
of
against a system
the new a line of flight can lead us to, has to be
in her Jaques
and
I argue, from
than in taking the
is not one against another sex. It is a resistance
and binaries, against a psychoanalytic
whether they 'becoming'
in-between,
much more effectively
on the
feminism can ar-
through its focus on a Bergsonian
It is as a non-gendered
mechanism;
in itself, then, might not be
feminism
beyond the Oedipal law. Deleuzean
the in-between.
as de-
oppressive
grounds of what they can 'do' in relation to cultural commentary, ticulate change and difference
of gender
Description
beyond the binary opposition
can account for difference
of 'beings'
This sentence
debates.
that prove that this did not lead to a
thesis will assess the merits of psychoanalytic
and comprehension
of the subject through the Oedipal complex.
from the dimensions we have available, the unique, subtracted from the multiplicity to be constituted.
of women
of women through Lacan, we
patriarchy's
what a text is, but what it can do. Deleuzean
an in-between
desire and used by Elizabeth Routledge, p. 137.
of the oppression
being one of many publications
feminist critical theory in cul-
other than those that are based on lack and binary oppositions
scribed in the constitution
description
seem to have been frozen in redescribing
texts in analysis or staging - often forsakes its power to represent
Oedipal stage. The dominance
or Susan Fa-
on a positionality
and mainstream
sustainable
whether in the cultural pages of newspapers
tural commentary
films in European feuilletons
the answer. This thesis will defend Deleuzean
by remapping
4
feminist readings - int1uence readings
to promote
hi/stories,
or to portray difference,
that supports Lacanian
power of cultural
has the potential
- such as film criticism
The Beauty Myth
approach
in relation to the opinion-forming
Critical commentary
cultural texts at the ICA in London. The int1uence
- basing their feminist
within patriarchy
are seldom missing in open talks
such as Naomi Wolf's
in application
criticism. Cultural
theory
bestsellers
(Germany) in 2001.
cultural and critical theory, such as Renata Salecl,
Mark Cousins, Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman of feminist
in cultural debates
and was granted a research award of € 500 000 from
Other stars of psychoanalytic
Backlash difficult
Zizek is omnipresent
of woman from lack cannot be
sustained within the confines of Oedipal terminology, notwithstanding by feminist psychoanalytic critical theorists to rewrite it. This is especially
Birds or Coke
bottles are not feminist as such, but follow the Lacanian notions that I will argue to be detrimental
of two sexes: to believe in
is
in Great Britain or
of Hitchcock's
they need to reiterate a warring relation in order to keep desiring each other. in the binarism
Europe
in the regular columns written by Slavoj Zizek in int1uential Euro-
pean newspapers,
in England and Germany,
3
cultural
Vintage.
an
alternative to a system of sexed identities which woman must be oppressed.
that will sustain a warring relation in
he able to promote them, and again, intluence into a thousand
cultural production.
tiny sexes, if we do not feel enunciated
If we split up
as woman, we might,
after all, be able to speak in the symbolic order. Is this a post-feminism
I am suggesting?
I believe it is a feminism,
if, following
Judith Grant', I define feminism as the 'lense' that detected the oppressive ture of gender. It is a feminism in the sense that I argue for a Deleuzean ing-woman,
which is not defined by woman's
or the subject position
form, organs and their functions
to which she has been assigned.
and Guattari, the girl's becoming
the theSIS - was stolen first, and was substituted But the answer cannot be to fall into the 'trap' that man can become
According
- a term that will be elaborated
molar entity, but to become molecular molecular,
strucbecom-
to Deleuz~
of this enunciation,
too, and both transcend
was created in the enunciation
any molar notion.
I
'humanism':
girl
of woman. We have to get beyond her, back or
Not one that theorises
all men are equal. But 'humane' the same rights.
non-gendered
and non-sexed
the human subject, nor one that argues that
in the sense that all identities,
but from its midst, from where the enunciation
all sexes, have
Guattari provide the vocabulary,
within a world that naturalises tempt to deconstruct
gender binarism.
its nature, it repeatedly
the sexes. Psychoanalytic
transsexuals
In spite of psychoanalysis'
seems to reinscribe
out of
What we want to find has not been
we have to create the descliption.
is its very own Body without Organs, every becoming-woman 'doing',
this ethical foundation
of Deleuzean
that describes
a constitutive
feminism of undergoing
feminism,
this difference
of dialectics.
will be discussed
then, is a political programme: psychoanalysis
the eternal
to an ontology
lack at the base of the subject. The Deleuzean
perative to create is an Other to the 'truth' municating
Each making
is original. This
return, in order to eliminate reactive forces, cannot be compared
tions and desiring-forms hermaphrodites,
we have to draw these becomings
described yet - we have to 'make' it by finding ways to articulate it. Deleuze and
whereas
It is difficult to fight for the rights of homosexuals,
of woman, or of man, distract
that, if we make them visible, will disrupt molar notions.
which is a
beyond girl or boy. This is why I believe that a feminist
politics should aim towards a post-enlightenment
from the sea of the molar - not from underneath,
cultural texts. This doing is not a 'finding'.
was stolen. I believe they are saying that a prediscursive
towards the molecular,
We have to skim the molecular
We have to 'make things do things':
read Deleuze and Guattari not as arguing that a girl existed as a molar entity before her becoming
steps through which we can shed our molar skins.
as woman.
instead'. The girl has to set an example so
and hence, this thesis will
suggest careful and successive
from active becomings
on throughout
by her enunciation
In this process, we must be careful to avoid idealism,
throughout
differences
can only ever reproduce that Deleuzean
The difficulty
im-
in com-
this thesis. Deleuzean
have to be made visible,
and is limited to binary rela-
feminism,
through
action, can tran-
scend.
at-
the binary into
feminism can describe the wrongs of patriarchy,
but it
does not seem to be able to change it. Therefore,
I believe we have to actively
The most recent figure of the priest is the psychoanalyst,
with his or her
create change, we have to discover the molecular
underneath
three principles:
psychoanalysis
tion of woman through patriarchy. the notion of 'woman'?
Who are 'they' who were accumulated
Who are 'they' who enunciated
ill
In actively
telling
not letting them be buried under a molar notion, we present be-
comings and can aIiiculate alternative
Judith Grant (1993): Fundamental , Thousand Plateaus, p. 276.
6
under
woman? Who lies in the
shadow of t.he molar, who does not fit into either category? theIr story,
a molar enuncia-
Feminism.
desires. And in this articulation,
London:
Routledge.
we might
demonstrated genitality.
Pleasure,
Death, and Reality. Doubtless,
that desire is not subordinated
That was its modernism.
found new ways of inscribing
to procreation,
or even to
But it retained the essentials,
it even
in desire the negative law of lack, the exter-
nal rule of pleasure, and the transcendent
idea of phantasy.
8
Psychoanalysis
demonstrated
even genitality.
that desire was not subordinated
But through
through lack and narcissism
a description
- concepts on which psychoanalytic
theory is based - a binary dialectic where mothers
is conserved
sleep with his mother and Electra never becomes cation wiH not cease being predestined
tive argument:
only in a world
where Oedipus
to fight the war of Oedipus
for as 'failures'.
identities
after all, it was psychoanalysis
that liberated
scious the difficulty
of attaining
gendered
identities
could be articulated,
and Freudian
analysts
ade'. With Lacan's
focus on language
underlying
subjectification
changed.
Against
identities
inscribes
This thesis does not argue that psychoanalytic
various strategies
description
feminism is essentialist.
change and to redefinition.'9 incorrectness.
Essence is a precarious
What Deleuze
specificity
and Guattari
And still, I risk the accusation
thing else: that psychoanalysis the discussion
contingent
was essentialist.
around this concept forecloses
example,
and
and difference'
Ill.
This phi-
not to forget that subject to
lis methodology.
Feminism,
Nature
of alternative
gender identities
ler's accusations
of 'essentialism'.
of lingUlstlc definitions, accusations
chapter on~, wh.ere I
that are not based on bmary °PPOS1-
The motivation
of closet Hegelianism,
for femmlst progress.
is not one of wmmng a war
which would undermme
account for a possible change of gender structures. unknown multitude of alternatives,
I
But-
and D~leuze against Butler's
critical theorists who suggest ethics, not determinisms,
both theIr value as
and also their potential to
The victory fought for IS an
that I find Foucault and Deleuze have greater
potential to theorise than psychoanalytic
discourse.
Finding ways to critique the 'essentials'
Deleuze and Guattari name, which cre-
, t es me. . G org W F . Hegel's conception of the unhappy conSCIousness as on . "ma de:cribed in The Phenomenology of the Spirit: the constitutive lack at the base of the subject. Dialectics
as the autocratic
I could call
of, really, meaning
some-
investigations
that
motivator
of subjectivation
IS used by
Judith Butler to defend Jacques Lacan, and, to an extent, Sigmund Freud ..One of therewith,
London:
throughout
but to defend Foucault
the aims of this thesis is to deconstruct
& Difference.
feminist progress with
and in chapter three, Deleuze.against
word, at present laden with
will be introduced
restricting
feminist theory in order to reveal the traps t~at mh1b1t the
will: in chapter two, defend Foucault,
contingent
the dialectic
desiring-structures
ject, in order to substitute
'nature'
that describe
of the subject and
the ps~choanalyt1c
sub-
a 'tyranny of the past' with the possIbIlIty of account-
ing for and evoking changing imaginaries.
of
by posing a II
Speaking.
functionalist,
This I will argue thoroughly
dissect psychoanalytic
I would like to emphasise
theorists
9 Fuss, Diana ([990): Essentially gan & Paul, p. 20. 1IJ Ibid.
determinist,
call essentials,
I follow Fuss in believing
These investigations
I call psychoanalysis
ate inescapable binarisms (ie lack-desire, castrator-castrat~d~ male-female), . back to the psychoanalytic concept of the desmng subject that means gomg .
sustain the
and constantly
'more ambitious
in
of gender
and fetishise her.
length of another thesis. It suffices to quote her: 'It is important
'basic components'.
were
could be detected
debate would, as seen in Diana Fuss' prominent
essence is a sign, and as such historically political
desire
a lack at the base of the subject that locks woman in the
(m)other, and hence, will justify man's need to denigrate
losophical
sexuali-
of the uncon-
that the psychic structures
into binary gender identities
notion such as presented
lion the focus on which, I argue, would be beneficial
this process as 'masquer-
this I argue, that any psychoanalytic
against a dialectic
discussed in this thesis.11
conception
and heterosexual
and the symbolic,
to argue that it was through psychoanalysis
account of difference
Lacanian approaches
_ or becom-
alternative
With the discovery described
l>ckuzean tlie
and Electra,
This might seem a highly provoca-
ties from the stigma of being pathological.
construed
wants to
a subject. Forms of subjectifi-
how change can occur if alternative
ings - can only be accounted
or
of the subject feminist critical
that operates
stay phallic and men fear castration;
and it is questionable
to procreation,
of the constitution
Routledge
Ke-
again that my notion
of Lacanian
I discuss in this thesis. Again: the interpretation
feminism
of Lacan's
work
~s strictly restricted IS
to t~os~
broad, and other readll1g~
'h as Joan Copjec's or Jacqueline Rose's, target exactly those interpretatiOns of Laca~1 dlscusse sue ,. . , . f .. '. d which I articulate over here Whether they escape the accusations I direct at Lacaman emlDlsm dO . . . b d' d I where This thesis cannot d,scuss the first few chapters is a question that wlll have to e ,scusse e se .' . . d · d' . I I·t dy of L'lcan's work would be leqUIre and assess every reading available - a close an d 111 IVlC ua s u. . ~~.... .' d . .' t . Bllt th,'s. is. not the aim of this thesis: the aun IS to du;cuss a general ten ency In f or sue h a plOJec 1980' s Lacanian
feminism
and the pitfalls it created.
Butler's Hegelianism the dialectical
could lead to a much larger debate than the one concerning
desiring
structure
lack, and the gender binarism
of the psychoanalytic that is its product.
unable to account for 'real' difference 12
Slavoj Zizek
subject that is based on
My accusation
Further, it could be argued that what I, following
•
that Hegel is
beyond the binary is strongly refuted by
as Hegelian dialectics - a desiring based on a constitutive
Butler, describe
lack - is a very limited
notion of dialectics.
This thesis will not have the scope to discuss dialectics
depth. The Hegelian
dialectics
I will refer to closely follows Butler's
term in her work.13 I will, following dialectical
determinisms
this account,
with the
called the Oedipal
lemma: the vicious circle of a gender war built on psychoanalytic dictate a certain form of desiring, that we lack.
Alice Doesn't by patriarchy,
Many poststructuralist
feminists,
theorisation
structures
dithat
which follows from the science that 'knows'
'female experience',
although
criticising
which was 'that complex
tions and perceptions,
which en-genders
politics that, following
Alcoff, constitutes
sessed in relation to woman's be assigned their individual
the dogmatism
define feminism
inherent in
as tile analysis
of habits, dispositions,
of a
associa-
one as female'I", or define an identity a 'positionality'I'.
This position
is as-
binary Other, man. Cultural realms call of course
and dominant
codes which engender
portant to describe a new, anti-dialectic emphasises
engagement,
methodology
and the in··between,
with which we can make these becomings
A Foucaultian
notion of resignification
the conception mentin
t> 10
of alternative
his work with Deleuzean
one as male or
ture specific traits that do not fit into the defined stereotype.
or 'positionality'
for one cultural realm secures their reiteration: By arguing
- like Teresa
existence
could
the codes of the 'female experience'
created in their analysis, and in the creation of stereotypes, automatically.
de Lauretis
schizoanalysis,
I introduce
a theoretical
and to exist, which, in my mind, psychoanalytic
Ian··
and Deleuzean
and even
feminist theory cannot do. And yet, although Foucaultian
cultural theories might allow us to 'move on' from where femI-
nism 'got stuck', they cannot account as empathetically those individuals
who define themselves
a certain dominance
as 'women',
of 'habits, dispositions,
en-genders
one as female'
discourse
that can theorise
for actual pain felt by
and as such, as victims of
associations
and perceptions
which
in their own culture. Here, it is still psychoanalytic this pain and take these individuals
provide one possible explanation
stereotypes
exclusion
does, referring
are
is practised to Lacan,
There is nothing
for their subjection
seriously
and
(and, one might add, might
even if - as will be argued - it cannot provide the foun-
'wrong'
with a feminism
women. It is one possible mode of resistance the power structures
we are surrounded
of new gender relations, feminist
l'z' k S . - Ize, lavoJ (1993): Tarrying with the Negative. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
tion, complement
For Butler', definition of Hegelian dialectics I refer mainly to her Subjects o(Desire and The Psychic Lire o(Power. 14 d L . e auretls, Teresa (1984): Alice Doesn't. Femini5'1n, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p.182.
ries that might help to construct
13
Alcoff, Linda (1988): 'Cultural Feminism vs Post-Structuralism. The Identity Crisis in Feminist Theory' in Signs, 13:3, pp. 105- I36.
that aims to better the position against dominating
of
powers within
by, and it is one possible practice of the
self. This thesis merely argues that it excludes, that it bars progress as in the development
settles it. My integrative
15
can enable
One thereby force-
that their non-amalgamated
break open, confute and change. Defining
that might fea-
discourses
guage that can account for movement and progress, and allow alterity to breathe,
therefore be therapeutic),
fully maps them onto a structure
a
and social change. By comple-
dation for a political strategy to change their situation.
genders
and provides
visible.
through reiterative
gender identities
text individually,
risks amalgamating
Our description
form of desire through Deleuze, one that
becoming-Other,
female, but I argue that, even if these traits are analysecl for every cultural conone nevertheless
woman as she is
which do not define themselves
of their existence is defined as idealist by a Lacanian logic. This is why it is im-
to become apparent
of gender,
identities
as woman are negated, and we cannot describe their becoming.
most poststructuralist a psychoanalytic
- that there is no agency beyond alternative
use of the
only be concerned
that create what is commonly
in
Iilroughout ellunciated
and deconstruct
nism can be left altogether. theorists - Lacanian,
as it intensifies approach
it simultaneously,
in order to integrat~ the~-
a line of flight from which the plane of feflll-
It is an interplay
Foucaultian
the gender war rather than
aims to widen the feminist percep-
of different
and Deleuzean
feminist theones
- and their individual
of woman with that which might lie beyond it. Basically
and
concepts
then, I advise cultural
and critical theorists to move two steps forward, one backward,
until we finally
reach the open sea, where walking becomes redundant form of progress will take over.
altogether
and a different
"\lIIlC'1l In society. A focus on the binary will always support biological ,hICI~'
that proves that humanity is made up by men who inseminate
"iI" hear children, \\;11. WI
The notion of lack in Lacanian
psychoanalysis
is for many feminists
tive concept. I will argue in this thesis that it is anti productive, its productivity
in relation to its potential to account for an unknown
gender identities multitude
and sexes. I believe in the political
of sexes: hermaphrodites
necessity
are a deviation,
a dysfunctional
ability to determine
diversity of
to account for a
do, after all, exist, and are discriminated
against in our society. One could argue that they only constitute jority - is constituted
a produc-
as I will measure
derivative
a minority, they
distinct sexes is highly contested,
that there is evidence
there exist within the animal as well as the human species reproductive corrected
in infancy",
hermaphrodites"'.
our bi-gendered
could argue that they only constitute
and that this in itself constitutes
social
roles
- such
a foundation
as mothering
'men',
of the gender
non-reproductive
linen', or any genders that have not yet been mapped - appear within a gentheorisation
l\lllstitute
of gender binarism
a binary opposition
,1';lIlic'. The exploitation Iii.: definition
as a luxury of modern civilisation
to viewing gender binarisms
that
and per-
And, if these were not surgically dramatically.
We
a minority because of social selection:
world would change
hav-
ing to fit into a bi-gendered world, we breed phenotypical biologically as well as socially.
but to develop
a theoretical
'evidence'
language
forms - social and/or biological
'men'
and 'women',
of women on the grounds of their reproductive
Ilism based in a notion of woman's biology, a functionalism,
experience
functions,
or positionality
for the
11-1
that can enunciate
- cannot be perceived,
If psychoanalytic
women against an Other, the existence
I am not in any sense arguing
has allowed us to detect the mechanisms choanalytic
feminism
- especially
of their oppression.
cannot change the situation,
striction the binarism of sex poses is intricately psychoanalytic
feminism.
that, in psychoanalytic
This problem
been and do not
psychoanalytic
feminism
feminism
gender I believe in,
I argue that psy-
linked to the problem intrinsic to
is the concept of a warring opposition
theory, will inevitably
women become. This reproduction
them. Alternative
life
nor be able to proliferate language
that can le-
defines the positionality
of 'in-betweens'
is easily negated.
of My
as a trap into which even the anti-essentialist describe woman as mere enunciation the male homo-logic,
reproduce
itself, no matter how
is secured through the sophisti-
domination,
sion causes our enunciation nate us. In supporting
post-structuralist
as birth machines,
analysis - we are caught in, as Rosi Braidotti
change in the perception
[7
Die Fortpilanzung with 'sexual
anomalies'
sex [see Hird, Myra J. (2000)
and Rieder, Katrin (2002) in Ariadne: pp.S-15], they mostly stay invisible.
Forwnliir
of Anglophone
they fail to create
a
of gender stereotypes.
Mossingen-Talheim:
born are, still, immediately
in Feminist Theory, Volumc
episodes
and show where
Jacques Lacan, himself having been influenced
As the four per cent of babies
rected' into a distinct
der Geschlechterverhiiltnisse.
theorisations
- Lacanian psycho-
terms it, a tyranny of the past. I
psychoanalytic
feminist
of culture in
and hence, man's need to domi-
hope to make visible this vicious circle by presenting
(2002):
feminisation
a theory that endorses this mechanism
feminism will show that the focus on the binary in the of
who
we are caught in a vicious circle: Oppres-
positionality
does not help to alter the position
and serves
feminists
fall. By arguing that women have to break
by arguing for an anti-humanist
order to resist patriarchal
-
but only describe it. The re-
critique of psychoanalytic
16 see Ebeling, Smilla Talheimer Verlag.
a femi-
writes a history, a
that women have not historically
and feminism
description
of woman's
'01'-
capacity,
that is difficult to overwrite.
continue to be oppressed,
'powerful'
debate about sexual binarism:
if they cannot be spoken about, if there is no theoretical gitimise their existence.
and
of women on the grounds of their reproductive
cated means feminism has found to describe this warring opposition, This thesis, though, will not look at the biological it is not my aim to present empirical
and thus
as 'natural'
of the human race, which - in the ma-
by 'real' men and women. One could argue back that the
haps even parthenogenetic
