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Plato and the Metaphysical Feminine

One Hundred and One Nights

Dr Irene Han author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:20th Jul '23

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Plato and the Metaphysical Feminine cover

Plato and the Metaphysical Feminine offers a new interpretation of the role of the female and the feminine in Plato's political dialogues--the Republic, Laws, and Timaeus--informed by Deleuze's film theory and Irigaray's psychoanalytic feminism. Irene Han reads Plato against the grain in order to close the gap between the vitalists and Plato, instead of magnifying their differences. Han explores the ambivalence that the vitalist tradition, Irigaray, and Derrida have towards Platonism. The application of Deleuzian and Irigarayan concepts to the ancient texts produces a new reading of Plato, focusing on the centrality and importance of motion, change, sensuality, and becoming to Platonic philosophy and, thereby, reinterprets Platonic philosophy in the direction of Heraclitus rather than Parmenides: as feminist rather than masculinist, and as mimetic. It therefore prioritizes Heraclitean principles of movement and flux over Form, the feminine over masculine, and materiality, feeling, or sensation over abstraction and universal essence. Han's exploration illustrates how, in Plato's thought, the feminine maps itself onto the plane of phenomena--a plane associated with vitalist themes such as motion, tactility, and change (metabolē). Platonic metaphysics is recontextualized by illustrating how Being expresses itself through processes of (feminine) becoming. With this reformulation, the resulting account of Platonic Being destabilizes any purported Platonic dualism.

A rigorous classical scholar who creatively integrates cultural theory, Han brings a refreshing new perspective to Platonic studies. Highly recommended, Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *
It is a valuable case study in the productive use of modern theory to gain new insight into ancient thought, and anyone with an interest in Plato's thought and method will find much of interest within it. * Carol Atack, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
It is a valuable case study in the productive use of modern theory to gain new insight into ancient thought, and anyone with an interest in Plato's thought and method will find much of interest within it. * Carol Atack, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

ISBN: 9780192849588

Dimensions: 225mm x 145mm x 18mm

Weight: 384g

208 pages