Hipparchia's Choice: An Essay concerning Women, Philosophy, Etc. by Michèle Le Dœuff, Trista Selous

Abstract

MLR, I03.3, 2oo8 867 mainstream and lesbian press, thus usefully adding the voices of others to her film readings. Structurally, thebook groups the films into the fourmost prominent modes of representation: 'criminality', 'pathology', 'liminality', and 'lesbo-affirmativemise en-scenes of desire'. These chapters are then subdivided into smaller units; forex ample, Chapter 2, entitled 'bad girls', categorizes the images into the subsections of 'sin', 'vice', and 'aggression, violence, bestiality'. The reader can thus construct a nuanced understanding of thedominant representational modes of lesbianism. Some films are included inmore than one chapter, as is the case with Jean-Pierre De nis's Les Blessures assassines (2000), which simultaneously conforms to stereotypes of lesbians as both criminals (p. 33) and incestuous (p. 76), but which offers explicitly erotic 'scenes [that] are none the less ripe forthe lesbian viewer's delectation' (p. I69). Cairns thereforereflectstheambiguities of screen depictions of lesbianism which can not be pigeon-holed into single,monolithic categories. The challenge for the reader, however, is tobuild an awareness of evolutions across different time-periods. In amost welcome move, Cairns acknowledges the importance of audience recep tion from thebeginning, stating firmlythat 'whatmakes a film"lesbian" isnot direc torial intentionbut audience reception' (p. 7). She adopts an assertive political stance, espousing on several occasions theneed toassume a 'principledapproach' in interpret ing images, and challenges 'resisting readings' and appropriations that amount to, in herwords, 'semantic violence' (p. 5). Cairns isjustified in suchwarnings, particularly given thepejorative nature of somany images of lesbianism, but a furthersophistica tionwould have been adequately to recognize thather 'responsible' stance is informed by the high level of cultural and subcultural capital she brings to each filmviewing. Moreover, theprioritizing of lesbianism as themost significant socio-cultural factor informing reception risks understating the other tastes, preferences, pleasures, and subject positions thatmay motivate the textual appropriations Cairns discourages. Elsewhere, the effectsof genre-play, camp aesthetics, and parody could have benefited fromgreater reflection. For instance, Cairns argues that in 8femmes (2001) Francois Ozon locates 'lesbianism in socially marginalised characters' (p. 94). Nevertheless, it could equally be asserted that the film's explicit nods to cinema's queer past including Sirk's hyperbolic melodramas, Minelli's camp musicals, and kitsch adapta tions ofAgatha Christie-alongside itsuse of excess, irony,and provocation, create a cinematic universe inwhich all gender identities and sexualities are destabilized. The above comments notwithstanding, Cairns provides us not onlywith a richand extensive overview of her subject, but also with an apposite starting-point for future fertile debates. As a consequence, this book will be of great value for the fields of French and francophone screen and cultural studies. UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER DARREN WALDRON Hipparchia's Choice: An Essay concerningWomen, Philosophy, etc. By MICHELE LE DEUFF. Trans. by TRISTA SELOUS. New York: Columbia University Press. 2007. 4I6 pp. ?i6. ISBN 978-0-23I-I3895-6. This second edition of the translation intoEnglish ofL'Etude et le rouet (Paris: Seuil, I989) is a testimony to the continuing importance ofMichele Le Dzeuff's ground breaking work. It was published in France in i989 and Trista Selous's translation firstappeared in i99 i. This new edition, followed by an epilogue written in 2006 by the author, brings the book to a new generation of readers. In itLe Dceuff continues her investigation into the language of Western philosophy, focusing her attention on the related questions ofwomen inphilosophy and women philosophers, and demon strates how philosophical language has constructed a community ofmale subjects, excluding women. 868 Reviews The book isbyway of being an intellectual autobiography. Both subject and object of her discourse, Le Dceuff, establishing an instant rapportwith her reader by adopt ing a familiar and conversational mode of discourse, demonstrates thehistory of one woman's intellectual and discursive trajectory against thebackdrop of feministmove ments and concerns. It isdivided into four 'Notebooks'. In the first,entitled 'which makes a problem out of everything. . .', Le Daeuff situates herself as the exemplum of her discourse. Adopting an anti-essentialist position, she explores how Sartre, the best-known philosopher of his generation, has systematically excluded women from discourse. Sartre's 'we', as she shows, is a narrow and elitist category-that of the European male philosopher. The second 'Notebook', 'which isanalytical...