Birth, Death, and Femininity: Philosophies of Embodiment

Issues surrounding birth and death have been fundamental for Western philosophy as well as for individual existence. The contributors to this volume unravel the gendered aspects of the classical philosophical discourses on death, bringing in discussions about birth, creativity, and the entire chain of human activity. By linking their work to major thinkers such as Heidegger, Nietzsche, Beauvoir, and Arendt, and to major philosophical currents such as ancient philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, and social and political philosophy, they challenge prevailing feminist articulations of birth and death. These philosophical reflections add an important sexual dimension to current thinking on identity, temporality, and community.

"I know of no other philosophical work that relates birth and death with sustained, in-depth treatment and connects them to the work of major philosophers." --Claudia Card, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"For feminist scholars across the disciplines." --Debra Bergoffen, George Mason University Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

Robin May Schott is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (Holocaust and Genocide). She is editor of Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil (IUP, 2007).

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Birth, Death, and Femininity / Robin May Schott

Part 1. Politics of Community

2. Sexual Violence, Sacrifice, and Narratives of Political Origins / Robin May Schott

3. Natality and Destruction: Arendtian Reflections on War Rape / Robin May Schott

Part 2. Phenomenologies of Mortality and Generativity

4. The Sexed Self and the Mortal Body / Sara Heinämaa

5. Being toward Death / Sara Heinämaa

6. Future and Others / Sara Heinämaa

Part 3. Nietzsche's Philosophy of Life

7. Nietzsche's Philosophy of Birth / Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir

8. The Natal Self / Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir

Part 4. An Ancient Tragedy

9. Antigone and the Deadly Desire for Sameness: Reflections on Origins and Death / Vigdis Songe-Mller

Notes on Contributors

Index