Luce Irigaray: Teaching (review)

This volume brings together essays collected from participants in seminars held by Luce Irigaray at the University of Nottingham over a three-year period. It also includes three essays by Irigaray herself, as well as three by established scholars of her work: Gillian Howie, Helen A. Fielding, and Laine M. Harrington. The volume is well organized around five themes: healing, art, the maternal order, spirituality and religion, and philosophy. Although they share a common theme, the essays within each section investigate a variety of cultural forms: literature, art, music, architecture, and film. They also consider Irigaray in relation to other philosophers, predominantly Merleau-Ponty, Hegel, Plato, Heidegger, and Heraclitus. The collection fills an important gap in current literature by directly addressing Irigaray's pedagogical practice. It demonstrates that Irigaray finds dialogue and questioning central to her students' progress. This sense of dialogue illuminates recognized philosophical approaches developed by Irigaray, but also, and interestingly, captures ideas only partially evident in her published work. Of note is Karen I. Burke's 'Masculine and Feminine Approaches to Nature'. Coining the phrase 'cultivation of the environment', Burke uses Irigaray's theoretical definition of cultivation to highlight the oft-ignored yet irreducible connection between culture and nature. Also of interest is Christine Labuski's 'Virginal Thresholds'. Labuski considers Irigaray's subjective virginity for women by thinking through the rarely discussed condition of vulvar vestibulitis syndrome. Overall, the essays elucidate and renew well-known concepts such as sexuate difference, morphology, proximity, and the sensible transcendental. They also creatively engage with ideas found in Irigaray's recent connection with Eastern traditions: the breath, being-two, mythical time, the middle voice, and the return. As is customary with collections based on conferences and seminars, the quality of the essays is variable. However, most develop Irigaray's thought in new ways, extending her work beyond its own limits. All of the essays deal with sexuate difference without reverting to essentialism, which demonstrates an overall attentiveness to the most fundamental concept in Irigaray's work. What is perhaps missing from the volume is a critical approach to Irigaray's thought: the essays are illuminating rather than critical. This is understandable given that the volume is based on conversations between Irigaray and her students. For those getting to grips with the more difficult philosophical concepts in Irigaray's work for the first time, the essays provide an accessible avenue to her other publications. However, for those looking for a critical engagement, the collection is less satisfying.