Book Notes
This book is another addition to the "Re-reading the Canon" series that seeks to draw attention to the ways gender is embedded within the work of traditional (mainly upper-class white male) philosophers. Maria J. Falco, the editor, has compiled thirteen essays to show how some "feminists have viewed, reacted to, and in some instances adapted for their own purposes those political and ethical aspects of Machiavelli's thought that they have found most critical to their understanding of their own time and place" (2). The first eight chapters are previously published works by Donald McIntosh, Hanna Fenichel Pitkin, Arlene W. Saxonhouse, Wendy Brown, Mary O'Brien, Catherine H. Zuckert, R. Claire Snyder, and Melissa A. Matthes. The remaining five chapters are new works by Cary J. Nederman and Martin Morris, John Juncholl Shin, Vesna Marcina, Jane S. Jaquette, and Andrea Nicki.
This book asserts the importance and the fruitfulness of exploring masculinities from a feminist perspective. The international contributors cover a range of topics, including gay liberation, sexual politics, the men's movement, black, and working-class masculinities, homophobia, and the relationship between masculinity and the performance of sexuality on the Internet. The book is divided into two sections. Part 1 (1970–1985) authors are Jack Sawyer, Carl Wittman, John Stoltenberg, Bob Lamm, Joseph H. Pleck, Andrew Tolson, Men's Free Press Collective, Paul Hoch, Paul Will, Robert Staples, and Emmanuel Reynaud. Part 2 (1985–present) has contributions from Tim Carrigan, Bob Connell, and John Lee; Gary Kinsman; Michael S. Kimmel; Kenneth Clatterbaugh; Marjorie Kibby and Brigid Costello; Abby L. Ferber; Louise Archer; and Samuel Adu-Poku.
The drive behind this book is the claim that bioethics is out of touch: "It is out of touch with bodies themselves, in the phenomenological sense in which [End Page 208] the being, or rather the becoming, of the self is always intricately interwoven with the fabric of the body; it is out of touch with the developments in and impact of postmodernist theory as it problematizes the hitherto unchallenged certainties of binary thinking; and it is out of touch with a postmodern culture in which bioscience itself forces us to question what is meant by the notion of the human self" (1–2). This collection, which is divided into five parts, seeks to show how bioethics can benefit from a postconventional perspective. Part 1, "Introduction" (Margrit Shildrick), and Part 2, "Critical Differences" (Philipa Rothfield and Jackie Leach Scully), address the topic of bioethics generally. The remaining sections turn to more specific issues: Part 3, "Thinking through Crisis" (Marsha Rosengarten, Helen Keane, Nancy Potter, and Lisa Diedrich), deals with particular topics of public and professional concern in biomedicine; Part 4, "The Challenge of Biotechnology" (Sylvia Nagl, Carol Bacchi and Chris Beasly, Isabel Karpin, Karen O'Connell), looks at challenges and conundrums in recent biotechnology; and Part 5, "Rethinking the Materiality of Embodiment" (Rosalyn Diprose and Katrina Roen), focuses on phenomenology and embodiment.
This collection of essays focuses on Julia Kristeva's most recent work, specifically her "reevaluation of the concept of revolt; . . . the concept of stranger, race, and nation; Kristeva's reflections on narrative, public spaces, and collectivity in the context of her engagement with Hannah Arendt's work; and finally, Kristeva's development and refinement of the notions of abjection, melancholia, and narcissism" (1). This book is divided into three thematic sections. Part 1, "Femininity, Face, and Revolt," investigates the changing conception of revolution in both Kristeva's early and late work, and includes contributions from Joan Brandt, Sara Beardsworth, Ewa Płonowska Ziarek, and Kelly Oliver. In Part 2, "Affect, Community, Collectivity," Sara Ahmed, N...
