"Gender" Claire Colebrook

This book is under the title "Transitions" which is a series devoted to passages and movements in critical thought.

Claire Colebrook gives an account of "gender" in the history of philosophy. She is brief but not superficial. Valuable information is conveyed in the book, which touches upon the historical differences of perception of sexuality and gender. Many historical facts that are usually overlooked in the gender discussions today are given in the book. Colebrook explains and discusses the perception of gender in pre-modern times, modernity, and postmodernity (or, poststructuralism). Many acclaimed theorists are covered in the book from a gender-aware perspective, such as Plato, Aristotle, Freud, Lacan, Derrida, Levi-Strauss, Deleuze and Guattari; and feminist thinkers such as de Beauvoir, Kristeva, Irigaray, Elizabeth Grosz, and Butler.

I recommend this book to everyone who is getting prepared for a research that is related to the issues of gender. It is a very good point to start the debate with an awareness of some historical facts. One can also prefer to find and read the work of the thinkers that are related in this book for the research.

Here is the Transitions website, where you can see all the titles:
http://www.palgrave-usa.com/series/serieslist.aspx?page=1&series=Transitions

"Jacques Lacan: A Feminist Introduction" Elizabeth Grosz

This book is an introduction to the psychoanalysis of Lacan from a feminist perspective. It is an account of the psychoanalysis within the historical frame, and it is also an account of the age old battle between psychoanalytical theory and feminist thought.

Grosz starts her book by placing psychoanalysis in the frame of european history of thought and discussing its interaction with the political and social status of the Europe in. While explaining Lacan's theory, she goes back to Freud and discusses how Lacan interpreted them. Throughout the book, she links the discussions to feminist perspective. The book concludes with an account of Kristeva's and Irigaray's theory. Both Kristeva and Irigaray are psychoanalysts, cultural theorists and philosophers with a feminist awareness; Irigaray, though, does not fancy being called a feminist.

In the feminist tradition, Lacan is usually seen as "the enfant terrible." His famous phrase "The Woman does not exist" is usually cited as a proof of his phallocentric position. However, some feminists, for example Kristeva and Irigaray, stopped blaming him for being phallocentric and rather suggested that his theory should be seen as a detailed account of how phallocentricism works. From this perspective, Lacan's theory provides valuable positions to discuss the current structure of signification systems, social order, and the hierarchy of thought.

I recommend this book to the ones who are preparing to read Lacan's work with an aim to study it in connection with feminist philosophy. Grosz's style is very smooth and easy to follow. With this book, I also recommend Sexuality in the Field of Vision by Jacqueline Rose. Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose are perhaps the first feminist thinkers to suggest a constructive reading of psychoanalysis in order to understand the way to ideology and sexuality are formed.

Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran by Shahrnush Parsipur

I read this novel several months ago in connection with my research study, which is based on contemporary artist Shirin Neshat's work. The novel is composed of five stories of five women in the wake of coup d'etat in Iran in 1953. It is forbidden in Iran and it costed its author several years in prison.

It is a very short novel, perhaps a novella, with 130 pages. It offers an enjoyable read. I started reading the book in the morning, and finished by night. The fantasy elements in the narration give an air of mystery, which is associated with the nature of womanhood. Although I do not remember many details, I still want to say a couple of things about this novel, because it is an interesting piece of work that needs attention.

The five women are (1) Makhdot, who wants to become a tree because she wants to bear children but she is afraid of the pains that sexual intercourse might bring; (2) Zarrinkolah, a former prostitute since childhood. She suddenly starts seeing her customers, and gradually every man on the street faceless; (3) Munis, who dies two times in the novel and comes back to life again; (4) Faizeh, soaked in vulgar superstitions; and (5)Golchehreh, unhappy in her marriage, slightly older than the other women.
The title 'Women without Men' indicates the adventure of these five women to set up a utopic garden estate where they dream of living in harmony away from their routine lives. Having left their habits, five women gather in a garden where they set up a house and employ a gardener, who is the only male in their utopic estate. In the novel, women are apparently associated with nature and a sort of metaphysical realm which is mysterious and beyond the reach of phallogocentricism. But how does a male gardener fit in this picture? In Persian symbology, gardens are places of transcendence. The garden motif is very central in the novel. How about the gardener?

Born in Iran, living and producing in the US, Shirin Neshat has set out to film the stories of the five women narrated in the novel. She has filmed two stories so far: Makhdot (2004) and Zarin (2005). They are marvellous pieces of art. Neshat plans an installation where she can exhibit each video (each story) in a room, and visiters are expected to travel between the rooms so that they can create their own "rhizomatic" collage of the story. As always, Neshat invests a lot in the beholder as a dimension that completes and creates her work differently. I am waiting for the other films, but for 3 years now, we have not heard from Neshat...
This picture is a still from Zarin.