Structuralist or Lesbian? Claude Lévi-Strauss and Monique Wittig on Rousseau’s “Science
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6442790 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William M Burton (University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 134-158 |
| Publication date | 2024-08-27 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Intellectual History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1479-2443 • E-ISSN: 1479-2451 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1479244324000192 |
| OpenAlex | W4401916011 |
| Language | FR |
| References cited | 7 |
In postwar France a proliferation of thinkers sought to move away from the dialectic of negation and synthesis. Two such writers turned to Jean-Jacques Rousseau as the source of a non-dualistic reflection. In 1962, Claude Lévi-Strauss laid claim to him as the “founder of the sciences of man,” and, inspired in part by his contact with Buddhism, he created a non-dualist version of the philosophe as a foil to Sartre. In 1989, Monique Wittig would also take up Rousseau, but in order to challenge Lévi-Strauss's notion of the exchange of women. In her hands, Rousseau also became a non-dualist through whom she could formalize the insights of gay and lesbian community life as a theory of sex abolition: “the science of the oppressed.” With archival materials, close readings, and historical contextualization, this article explores the genesis and interactions of both interpretations and situates them on the broader horizon of postwar thought
Art · Humanities · Lesbian · Levi strauss · Literature · Sociology · Stereochemistry · Wittig reaction · Chemistry · Gender Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought
| Highly cited | No |
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