Speculum of the Other Woman by Luce Irigaray (1985, Paperback)

...again, it took eleven years for the original French edition of this text to be translated by Gillian Gill into English. Due to that lapse, French Feminism was shaping into a very radical feminist movement that was literally reshaping society. US Feminism laged behind as a more sedate endeavor; whereas, the French Feminist writers were so hotly empassioned that their ideas spread like wild fire.

Luce Irigiray, like her contemporary, Helene Cixous, is one of the most well published, well educated, brilliant writers from what is known as the "Third Wave" of Feminism.

In this, her doctoral dissertation, Irigaray challenges, if not utterly
'deconstructs' the ideas of Freud, Hegel & Plato. No small feat!

There is simply no way to summarize Irigaray without reducing her; thus, I will simply recite her text's chapters. By the way, this doctoral dissertation of hers got her placed in a situation of exile.

"The Blind Spot in the Old Dream of Symmetry"
1) Woman, Science's Unknown
2) The Little Girl Is (Only) a Little Boy
3) Is Her End in Her Beginning?
4) Another "Cause" -- Castration
5) "Penis-Envy"
6) A Painful Way to Become a Woman
7) A Very Black Sexuality?
8) The Penis = The Father's Child
9) The Deferred Action of Castration
10) An Indespensible Wave of Passivity
11) Female Hom(m)osexuality
12) An Impracticle Sexual Relationship
13) "Woman Is a Woman as a Result of a Certain Lack of Characteristics"

"Speculum"
1) Any Theory of the "Subject Has Always Been Appropriated by the "Masculine"
2) Kore: Young Virgin, Pupil of the Eye
3) On the Index of Plato's Works: Woman
4) How to Conceive (of) a Girl
5) Une Mere de Glace
6) " . . . and if, taking the eye of a man recently dead . . ."
7) La Mysterique
8) Paradox of A Priori
9) The Eternal Irony of the Community
10) Volume-Fluidity

"Plato's Hysteria"
1) The Stage Setup
2) The Dialogues
3) The Avoidance of (Masculine) Hysteria
4) The "Way Out" of the Cave
5) The Time Needed to Focus and Adjust Vision
6) The Father's Vision: Engendering with No History of Problems
7) A Form That Is Always the Same
8) Completion of the Paideia
9) Life in Philosophy
10) Divine Knowledge
11) An Unarticulated/Inarticulate Go-Between: The Split between Sensible and
Intelligible
12) Return to the Name of the Father
13) "Woman's" Jouissance

When Freud's psychology & Hegel & Plato's philosophies are well known, just glancing upon the titles of Irigaray's chapters, it's easy to recognize just how subversive they are bound to become.

Indeed, they are! Quoting from "master discourses," Irigaray responds to them as only a free thinking brilliant psychologist & philosopher could. She tears apart the main concepts held out by the 'grand masters of discourse' by peeling back the layers of masculinization that cover up truths about women that have been hidden beneath.

This is one of the most empowering & powerful woman-centering acts of feminist criticism of the 20th century. When it becomes necessary to learn how to provide a deadly on-point critique using feminist methods, read this text to learn how to do so~