Cut of the Real

Given the brilliance of this book, I think it would be no exaggeration to say that Kolozova is the 'Eastern European Judith Butler.' Which is to say that she is uncompromisingly difficult, innovative, and challenging as a thinker, yet develops a voice that is radically distinct from American-dominated gender theory. -- Michael O'Rourke, Independent Colleges, Dublin

A leading scholar of gender studies and speculative realism carves a universal conception of identity and the subject. Katerina Kolozova reclaims the relevance of categories traditionally rendered "unthinkable" by postmodern feminist philosophies, critically repositioning poststructuralist feminist philosophy and gender/queer studies.Following Francois Laruelle's nonstandard philosophy and the work of Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, Luce Irigaray, and Rosi Braidotti, Katerina Kolozova reclaims the relevance of categories traditionally rendered "unthinkable" by postmodern feminist philosophies, such as "the real," "the one," "the limit," and "finality," thus critically repositioning poststructuralist feminist philosophy and gender/queer studies. Poststructuralist (feminist) theory sees the subject as a purely linguistic category, as always already multiple, as always already nonfixed and fluctuating, as limitless discursivity, and as constitutively detached from the instance of the real. This reconceptualization is based on the exclusion of and dichotomous opposition to notions of the real, the one (unity and continuity), and the stable. The non-philosophical reading of postructuralist philosophy engenders new forms of universalisms for global debate and action, expressed in a language the world can understand. It also liberates theory from ideological paralysis, recasting the real as an immediately experienced human condition determined by gender, race, and social and economic circumstance.