Abstract

This chapter shows how Friedrich Nietzsche’s work on genealogy can be read critically and strategically alongside Gloria Anzaldúa’s thought to develop a conception of “embodied genealogy” as a mode of critical, historical, and transformative philosophical practice. Anzaldúa’s thought resonates with Nietzsche’s conception of genealogy, a method of philosophical practice that sheds critical light on dominant ways of knowing by calling into question assumptions about historical necessity and rational progress. Reading Anzaldúa’s work through this lens sheds light on her contributions to philosophical conversations about knowledge, identity, and community. Anzaldúa’s work can also be read as a productive critique and necessary supplement to a Nietzschean conception of genealogical ways of knowing. Considering Anzaldúa’s thought and Nietzschean genealogy together yields a rich philosophical ground for thinking through questions about knowledge, embodiment, and identity in general, and the intellectual and political practice of Latina feminist philosophy in particular.