To be Two

A feminist critique of the accounts of "Being" found in some of the key texts of existentialism and phenomenology, in particular Sartre, Levinas and Merleau-Ponty. Knowing the other as beloved is intimately related to a changing perception of the other of the cosmos.

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In this major new work, French philosopher Luce Irigaray continues to explore the issue central to her thought: the feminist redefinition of Being and Identity. For Irigaray, the notion of the individual is twinned with a reconceived notion of difference, or alterity. What does it mean to be someone? How can identity be created, or discovered, in relation to others? In To Be Two Irigaray gives new clarity to her project, grounding it in relation to such major figures as Sartre, Levinas, and Merleau-Ponty. Yet at the same time, she enriches her discussion with an attempt to bring out the elements - earth, fire, water - into philosophical discourse. Even the polarities of heaven and earth come to play in this ambitious and provocative text. At once political, philosophical and poetic, To Be Two will become one of Irigaray's central works. Luce Irigaray is Director of Research in Philosophy at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. Translators: Monique Rhodes and marco Cocito-Monoc