Reproductive politics, biopolitics and auto-immunity: From Foucault to Esposito [Book Review]

Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 7 (2):217-226 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The contingent cultural, epistemological and ontological status of biology is highlighted by changes in attitudes towards reproductive politics in the history of feminist movements. Consider, for example, the American, British, and numerous European instances of feminist sympathy for eugenics at the turn of the century. This amounted to a specific formation of the role, in late nineteenth and early twentieth century feminisms, of concepts of biological risk and defence, which were transformed into the justificatory language of rights claims. In this context, one can ask how reproductive politics are to be fitted into the paradoxical relationship between biopolitics and thanatopolitics discussed by Michel Foucault and more recently by Roberto Esposito. In this context, “reproductive life,” can be thought of arising at the intersection of thanapolitics and biopolitics as these relate to women’s bodies. Revisiting Foucault and Esposito in the light of reproductive politics also allows a reconsideration of the paradoxical feminist aims involved in defending individual rights by reference to overall biopolitical interest and futurity.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Foucault on politics, security and war.Michael Dillon & Andrew W. Neal (eds.) - 2008 - New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-05-15

Downloads
118 (#140,574)

6 months
12 (#122,866)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Penelope Deutscher
Northwestern University

Citations of this work

The Semiotic Fractures of Vulnerable Bodies: Resistance to the Gendering of Legal Subjects.Nayeli Urquiza-Haas - 2017 - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique 30 (4):543-562.

Add more citations