Irigaray's Mimicry and the Problem of Essentialism
- 1 January 1995
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Hypatia
- Vol. 10 (4) , 76-89
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1995.tb00999.x
Abstract
This essay deals with the essentialism controversy concerning Luce Irigaray through looking into her strategic use of mimicry, which has not been fully addressed by her critics. The author argues that what appear to be essentialist elements in Irigaray's writings are in fact the “sites” where she is mimicking the phallogocentric discourse in order to uncover its essentialist and “sexed” nature and at the same time to resist being reabsorbed into its reductive order.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Luce Irigaray's "Contradictions": Poststructuralism and FeminismSigns: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1991
- Corporeal Habits: Addressing Essentialism DifferentlyHypatia, 1991
- Translated by Carol Mastrangelo BovéHypatia, 1987