Birth, Death, and Femininity: Philosophies of Embodiment

"For feminist scholars across the disciplines."---Deber Bergoffen, George Mason University

"I know of no other philosophical work that relates birth and death with sustained, in-depth treatment and connects them to the work of major philosophers."---Claudia Card university of Wisconsin-Madison

Issues surrounding birth and death have been fundamental for Western philosophy as well as for individual existence. The contributors to this volume unravel the gendered aspects of the classical philosophical discourses on death, bringing in discussions about birth, creativity and the entrie chain of human activity. By linking their work to major thinkers such as Heidegger, Nietzsche, Beauvoir, and Arendt, and to major philosophical currents such as ancient philosophy, existentaialism, phenomenology, and social and political philosophy, they challenge prevailing feminist articulations of birth and death. These philosophical reflections add an important sexual dimension to current thinking on identity, temporality, and community.

Robin May Schott is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (Holocaust and Genocide). She is editor of Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil (IUP, 2007).