Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism

By Elizabeth Grosz

Book Overview

Demonstrates that the sexually specific body is socially constructed: biology or nature is not opposed to or in conflict with culture. Examining the theories on the subject of the body, the author concludes that the body they theorize is male. She then turns to corporeal experiences unique to women-menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and more.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253326869
• ISBN13: 9780253326867
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 272 Pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent

I have not yet read this book, but I just finished a class Ms. Grosz taught on Sigmund Freud, and she is a brilliant person. If her books are anything like her teaching skills, this is definitely worth the read!

The mind returns to the body!

Grosz's work is a triumph of corporeal phenomenology. The book discusses the role of the body as it pertains to gender, race and sex. The body is not just an atomic aggregate but rather a lived experience. The first part of the book, "Inside Out," explores the psychoanalytic view of the body whereas the part titled "Outside In" covers society's pressures on the body. Grosz concludes by addressing the differences between the male and female body, and how the body-politic cannot be ignored when disucssing femininsm.

Definitely worth a read

Thoughtful, energetic discussion of the gendered body. One of the best introductions to Australian feminist theory. quintan wikswo