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THE IRIGARAY READER
Luce Irigaray
Edited and with an introduction
by
Margaret Whitford
Basil Blackwell
Trent Univt
Peterborough, c--
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Copyright © introduction, editorial matter and organization Margaret Whitford 1991
Margaret Whitford is hereby identified as author of this work in accordance with Section 77 ofl
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 1991
Basil Blackwell Ltd
108 Cowley Road, Oxford, 0X4 1JF, UK
Basil Blackwell, Inc.
3 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for
the purposes of criticism and review, no part may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to
the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be
lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the
publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Irigaray, Luce.
[Essays. Selections. English]
The Irigaray reader / Luce Irigaray; edited and with an
introduction by Margaret Whitford.
p. cm.
Translated from the French.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-17042-1 - ISBN 0-631-17043-X (pbk.)
L Women - Psychology. 2. Women and psychoanalysis. 3 . Femininity
(Philosophy) 4. Sex (Psychology) I. Whitford, Margaret.
HQ1206.173213 1991
305.42 - dc20 91-9540
CIP
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset in 11 on 13pt Plantin bv Best-set Typesetter Ltd
Printed in Great Britain
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Acknowledgements v
Introduction 1
Glossary 16
SECTION I: The critique of patriarchy 21
^ Introduction to section I 23
*T Equal or different? 30
2 The bodily encounter with the mother 34
Women-mothers, the silent substratum of the social
V
order 47
©
Volume without contours 53
SECTION II: Psychoanalysis and language 69
Introduction to section II 71
—5—The poverty of psychoanalysis 79
6—The limits of the transference 105
-T—The power of discourse and the subordination of the
feminine 118'
Questions 133
9 The three genres 140
SECTION III: Ethics and subjectivity: towards the future 155
< Introduction to section III 157
<©
Sexual difference 165
11 Questions to Emmanuel Levinas 178
Women-amongst-themselves: creating a
woman-to-woman sociality 190
IV Contents
The necessity for sexuate rights 198
How to define sexuate rights? 204
He risks who risks life itself 213
Bibliography 219
Index 227
Acknowledgements
I would iike to thank Luce Irigaray for her support for this project
and for her patient replies to queries over several years. Thanks also
to Marie-Christine Press for generous help at the outset, and to Toril
Moi for her enthusiastic encouragement. My biggest debt is to David
Macey for his remarkably accurate and painstaking translations; this
Reader would not have been possible without him.
Margaret Whitford
The editor and publishers are grateful for permission to reproduce
the following material:
Chapter 1 this translation © 1991 David Macey. Originally pub¬
lished in Je, Tu, Nous, Grasset, 1990. Chapter 2 this translation ©
1991 David Macey, reprinted from Luce Irigaray, Sexes et parentes,
© forthcoming Columbia University Press. Used by permission.
Chapter 3 this translation © 1991 David Macey. Used by kind
permission of Luce Irigaray. Chapter 4 retranslated by David Macey
from Luce Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman, translated by
Gillian C. Gill. Translation © 1985 by Cornell University Press.
Used by permission of the publisher. Chapters 5 and 6 this transla¬
tion © 1991 David Macey, from Luce Irigaray, Parler n’est jamais
neutre, © forthcoming the Althone Press. Used by permission.
Chapters 7 and 8 reprinted from Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which
Is Not One, translated by Catherine Porter with Carolyn Burke.
Translation © 1985 by Cornell University Press. Used by permission
of the publisher. Chapter 9 this translation © 1991 David Macey,
reprinted from Luce Irigaray, Sexes et parentes, © forthcoming
vi Acknowledgements
Columbia University Press. Used by permission. Chapter 10 this
translation © Sean Hand (from Toril Moi, (ed) French Feminist
Thought, Basil Blackwell, 1987). Reprinted by kind permission of
Cornell University Press. Chapter 11 reproduced by kind permission
of Luce Irigaray. Chapter 12 this translation © 1991 David Macey.
Used by kind permission of Luce Irigaray. Chapter 13 this transla¬
tion © 1991 David Macey, reprinted from Luce Irigaray, Sexes
et parentes, © forthcoming Columbia University Press. Used by
permission. Chapter 14 this translation © 1991 David Macey.
Originally published in Je, Tu, Nous, Grasset, 1990. Chapter 15 this
translation © 1991 David Macey, from Luce Irigaray, L’oubli de
Fair, reproduced by kind permission of Les Editions du Minuit.
