1st Edition

French Feminists on Religion A Reader

Edited By Morny Joy, Kathleen O'Grady, Judith Poxon Copyright 2001
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    French Feminists on Religion: A Reader offers the first representative selection of important writings by French feminist thinkers on the topic of religion, including the most influential and provocative texts on the subject from Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous, Monique Wittig and Catherine Clément. Each thinker is introduced by a bibliographical preface, while individual essays are preceded by an editorial commentary explaining the context and significance of each piece for the study of religion.
    The collected texts cover a broad range of religious practices and discourses focusing primarily on Jewish and Christian concerns, but including elements of ancient Goddess traditions, Witchcraft, Hinduism and Buddhism. Critically examined themes include:
    * Jewish and Christian notions of sin, defilement, purity and redemption;
    * the relationship between subjectivity and divinity, as conceived in the feminine;
    * the feminist re-imaging of the Virgin Mary, and of Catholic theologies of love;
    * the repression of the maternal in Judeo-Christian culture.
    Brought together for the first time in French Feminist on Religion: A Reader, these essays demonstrate the central importance of French feminism for the study of religion, and at the same time make evident the significance of religious themes, figures and concepts to the world of French feminists.

    PermissionsAcknowledgementsPrefaceForeword by Catherine Clément (translated by Sharon Hackett and Morny Joy)Introduction 'French Feminisms in Religious Studies' by Morny Joy, Kathleen O'Grady and Judith L. Poxon.Luce Irgaray: 'Plato's Hystera'(abridged from Speculum of the Other WomanLa Mysterique from Speculum of the Other Woman'Divine Women' (abridged) from Sexes and Genealogies'When the Gods are Born' (abridged) from Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche'Sexual Difference' (abridged) from An Ethics of Sexual DifferenceI'The Forgotten Mystery of Female Ancestry (abridged) from Thinking the Difference: For a Peaceful Revolution'Practical Teachings: Love - Between Passion and Civility' (abridged) from I Love to You: Sketch of a POssible FelicityJulia Kristeva:'Approaching Abjection' (abridged) and 'Semiotics of Biblical Abonomation' (abridged) from Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection'Credence Credit' and 'Credo' (abridged) from In the Beginning was Love: Psychoanalysis and Faith'Stabat Mater' from Tales of Love'Psychoanalysis - A Counter Depressant' (abridged) and 'Holbein's Dead Christ' (abridged)from Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia'The Chosen People and the Choice of Foreignness' from Strangers to Ourselves'Reading the Bible' from New Maladies of the SoulCatherine Clément: 'Sorceress and Hysteric' from The Newly Born Woman'The Child, The Savage' from The Newly Born Woman'Where am I?' (abridged) from Syncope: The Philosophy of Rapture'Jouissances: Between the Angel and the Placenta' (abridged) from Syncope: The Philosophy of RaptureHélène Cixous'Sorties' (abridged) from The Newly Born Woman'The Author in Truth' (abridged) from Coming to Writing'Coming to Writing' (abridged) from Coming to Writing'Grace and Innocence: Heinrich von Kleist' (abridged) from Readings: The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Kleist, Lispector, and Tsvetayeva'The School of Dreams' (abridged) from Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing'Writing Blind' (abridged) from Stigmata: Escaping TextsMonique WittigExcerpts from The Lesbian BodyBibliographyIndex

    Biography

    Morny Joy is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. She has edited numerous collections on women and religion and is currently writing a book on Luce Irigaray. Kathleen O'Grady is a Research Associate at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Montreal and is the editor of Bodies, Voices, Lives: Gender and Theology . Judith Poxon teaches at the University of Syracuse. She is a contributor to Routledge's Encyclopedia of Postmodernism and with Kathleen O'Grady, moderates the electronic discussion list on French feminist thought.

    'A strength of the book is its effective balancing of essays that critique traditional religious structures and those that construct radical new modes of thinking about the divine.' - Kelley Raab, St. Lawrence University, Religious Studies Review

    'Will be widely read and widely used by scholars in the field ... marvelous and stimulating.' - Diane Jonte-Pace, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Santa Clara University