SKOK-seminar: Beyond Activity and Passivity: Carnality in Irigaray

SKOK welcomes everyone interested to the seminar BEYOND ACTIVITY AND PASSIVITY: CARNALITY IN IRIGARAY with Dr. Rebecca Hill, RMIT University (Australia)

An important aspect of Irigarayan sexual difference is the transvaluation of heterosexual carnality. Some readers have criticised Irigaray for instantiating a presumptive heterosexuality that excludes other kinds of sexual relationships (Butler et al: 27-8). Her focus on re-thinking heterosexuality does work at times to efface homosexualities. Nonetheless, this paper suggests Irigaray offers important insights not only for rethinking heterosexuality but also but for re-conceiving lesbian and gay sex. I argue her work on carnality moves beyond some violent dichotomies too few queer theorists have questioned: activity/passivity and outside/inside (Irigaray, 1993, 1985).

Rebecca Hill received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Monash University in 2006. She teaches in the School of Applied Communication at RMIT University (Australia) and is preparing a monograph on the interval in Irigaray, Aristotle, and Bergson. (rebecca.a.hill@rmit.edu.au)

Welcome!