
The Nick of Time
Politics, evolution and the untimely
Elizabeth Grosz(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 31. March 2021
Book
Hardback
324 pages
978-0-367-71984-5 (ISBN)
Description
In this pathbreaking new work, Elizabeth Grosz proposes a theory of becoming in place of the prevailing emphasis on being in social, political and biological discourse. Drawing on evolutionary biology, she explores the effect of time on the organization of matter and the development of biological life. She argues that factoring in the relentless forward movement of time throws new light on the ever-growing complication of social life, and also on political struggle.
Grosz juxtaposes the work of Darwin, Nietzsche and Bergson. Each theorises time as an active phenomenon with specific effects, with a profound impact on understandings of the body in relation to time. She shows how their concepts of life, evolution, and becoming are manifest in the work of Deleuze and Irigaray.
Throughout The Nick of Time, Grosz emphasizes the political and cultural imperative to fundamentally rethink time: the more clearly we understand our temporal location as beings straddling the past and the future without the security of a stable and abiding present, the more transformation becomes conceivable.
Grosz juxtaposes the work of Darwin, Nietzsche and Bergson. Each theorises time as an active phenomenon with specific effects, with a profound impact on understandings of the body in relation to time. She shows how their concepts of life, evolution, and becoming are manifest in the work of Deleuze and Irigaray.
Throughout The Nick of Time, Grosz emphasizes the political and cultural imperative to fundamentally rethink time: the more clearly we understand our temporal location as beings straddling the past and the future without the security of a stable and abiding present, the more transformation becomes conceivable.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
760 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-367-71984-5 (9780367719845)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
10/2004
1st Edition
Allen & Unwin
€41.90
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Elizabeth Grosz is the author of six previous books including the widely read Volatile Bodies (Allen + Unwin, 1994) and has been nominated for many prizes for her work, including the New South Wales Premier's Award and the James Russell Lowell Prize. Hugely influential in many fields of critical theory, she has taught at (amongst others) the University of Sydney, Monash University, Harvard, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins University. She is currently Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University in the USA.
Content
Acknowledgments, Abbreviations, Introduction: To the Untimely, PART I. DARWIN AND EVOLUTION, 1. Darwinian Matters: Life, Force, and Change, 2. Biological Difference, 3. The Evolution of Sex and Race, PART II. NIETZSCHE AND OVERCOMING, 4. Nietzsche's Darwin, 5. History and the Untimely, 6. The Eternal Return and the Overman, PART III. BERGSON AND BECOMING, 7. Bergsonian Difference, 8. The Philosophy of Life, 9. Intuition and the Virtual, Conclusion: The Future, Notes, References, Index