Topologies of Sexual Difference
Space in Philosophy and Visual Art After Irigaray
Published on 1. October 2025
Book
Hardback
294 pages
979-8-8558-0366-2 (ISBN)
Description
Brings together wide-ranging, interdisciplinary analyses of Luce Irigaray's rethinking of space with respect to sexual difference and the visual arts.
A rethinking of space is central to Luce Irigaray's philosophy of sexual difference. Topologies of Sexual Difference is the first edited collection to focus on this task through a sustained consideration of both Irigaray's critique of the Western tradition's systematic conflation of femininity and space and her transvaluative topological redeployment of space in theorizing sexual difference. Across thirteen chapters, Irigarayan space is thematized as porous, fluid, continuous, and self-differentiating. Contributors engage with the origins of life, affect, the aesthetics of the maternal and placental, an Irigarayan morphology inclusive of trans embodiment, and-in a rare focus-the expression of sexuate specificity in creative practice. Topologies of Sexual Difference thus demonstrates the fundamental importance of Irigaray's rethinking of space for Western philosophy and the visual arts.
A rethinking of space is central to Luce Irigaray's philosophy of sexual difference. Topologies of Sexual Difference is the first edited collection to focus on this task through a sustained consideration of both Irigaray's critique of the Western tradition's systematic conflation of femininity and space and her transvaluative topological redeployment of space in theorizing sexual difference. Across thirteen chapters, Irigarayan space is thematized as porous, fluid, continuous, and self-differentiating. Contributors engage with the origins of life, affect, the aesthetics of the maternal and placental, an Irigarayan morphology inclusive of trans embodiment, and-in a rare focus-the expression of sexuate specificity in creative practice. Topologies of Sexual Difference thus demonstrates the fundamental importance of Irigaray's rethinking of space for Western philosophy and the visual arts.
Reviews / Votes
"Topologies of Sexual Difference is certain to make a major contribution to scholarship on Irigaray and continental feminist theory more generally. The essays helpfully elucidate Irigaray's most important spatial concepts-interval, threshold, sensible transcendental, between-us, chora. Drawing from the full range of Irigaray's works, the volume demonstrates the immense significance of her spatial thinking not only to all branches of philosophy (ontology, epistemology, and ethics) but also to politics, the physical and life sciences, and art. After this volume, no reader could be left wondering about Irigaray's relevance as a thinker of space." - Yvette Russell, Professor of Law and Feminist Theory, University of BristolMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Illustrations
1 Tables, black and white; 2 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
631 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-8558-0366-2 (9798855803662)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Louise Burchill | Rebecca Hill | James Sares
Topologies of Sexual Difference
Space in Philosophy and Visual Art After Irigaray
E-Book
10/2025
State University of New York Press
€36.99
Available for download
Persons
Louise Burchill is an independent scholar and a former Honorary Fellow at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. Rebecca Hill is Senior Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. She is the author of The Interval: Relation and Becoming in Irigaray, Aristotle, and Bergson and coeditor, with Ryan S. Gustafsson and Helen Ngo, of Philosophies of Difference: Nature, Racism and Sexuate Difference. James Sares is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky. He is coeditor, with Mary C. Rawlinson, of What Is Sexual Difference? Thinking with Irigaray.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations (Works by Irigaray)
Introduction
Louise Burchill and Rebecca Hill
Part One: Differential Space
1. Chora Reconsidered in View of a Topology of Sexual Difference
Kristin Sampson
2. "Putting the Accent Back on Space": Irigaray's Topology, Chora, and Feminine Jouissance
Louise Burchill
3. "The Deepest and Most Initial Vital Structure Is Topological": A Feminist Philosophy of the Origins of Cellular Life with Irigaray and Simondon
Annu Dahiya
4. Carnal Being-with: Irigaray in Dialogue with Heidegger
Jennifer Carter
Part Two: Of Sensibility and the Elemental
5. Affective Poiesis: Irigaray's Elemental Ontology
Ellen Mortensen
6. To Speak of Immemorial Waters: Irigaray with Nietzsche
Rebecca Hill
7. "A Morphe in Continual Gestation": The Sensible Transcendental, Gesture, and Morphology in Irigaray
Athena V. Colman
Part Three: Feminine Genealogies
8. Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray: A Genealogy Reconsidered
Gail Schwab
9. Luce Irigaray and the Fate of Antigone: Respect for Sexuate Identity
Marguerite La Caze
10. Intertwinements of Pictorial Research and Speculative Effort: The Noetic Dance Between Barbara and Luce
Francesca Brezzi, translated by Edoardo Bellando and Tamara Lee
Part Four: Sexuate Art in the Making
11. Painterly Poetics and Difference in the Making
Jacqueline Taylor
12. Irigaray and the Baroque: Exploring Sexual Difference Through Creative Practice
Danielle Hamilton
13. The Icon and the Absent Other
Rebekah Pryor
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations (Works by Irigaray)
Introduction
Louise Burchill and Rebecca Hill
Part One: Differential Space
1. Chora Reconsidered in View of a Topology of Sexual Difference
Kristin Sampson
2. "Putting the Accent Back on Space": Irigaray's Topology, Chora, and Feminine Jouissance
Louise Burchill
3. "The Deepest and Most Initial Vital Structure Is Topological": A Feminist Philosophy of the Origins of Cellular Life with Irigaray and Simondon
Annu Dahiya
4. Carnal Being-with: Irigaray in Dialogue with Heidegger
Jennifer Carter
Part Two: Of Sensibility and the Elemental
5. Affective Poiesis: Irigaray's Elemental Ontology
Ellen Mortensen
6. To Speak of Immemorial Waters: Irigaray with Nietzsche
Rebecca Hill
7. "A Morphe in Continual Gestation": The Sensible Transcendental, Gesture, and Morphology in Irigaray
Athena V. Colman
Part Three: Feminine Genealogies
8. Simone de Beauvoir and Luce Irigaray: A Genealogy Reconsidered
Gail Schwab
9. Luce Irigaray and the Fate of Antigone: Respect for Sexuate Identity
Marguerite La Caze
10. Intertwinements of Pictorial Research and Speculative Effort: The Noetic Dance Between Barbara and Luce
Francesca Brezzi, translated by Edoardo Bellando and Tamara Lee
Part Four: Sexuate Art in the Making
11. Painterly Poetics and Difference in the Making
Jacqueline Taylor
12. Irigaray and the Baroque: Exploring Sexual Difference Through Creative Practice
Danielle Hamilton
13. The Icon and the Absent Other
Rebekah Pryor
Contributors
Index