This book reorients the question of the matrix as a place "where" everything comes from ( "chora," womb, incubator) by recasting it in terms of acts of "matrixial/maternal hospitality" that produce space and matter of / for the other.

This article engages the concept of hospitality as it relates to the maternal. I critically evaluate the current conceptions of hospitality by Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, focusing on their dematerialized definition of the feminine found at the heart of hospitality, and Derrida's aporia of hospitality that deals with ownership. The foundation of hospitality, I show, is the maternal relation and its specific acts of hospitality that encompass the notions of gift and generosity. While remaining unthought in philosophy, however, maternal (...) acts of hospitality are appropriated when hospitality is defined as interiority, habitation, expectancy, and unconditional welcoming of the other within oneself. I argue that hospitality would remain Derrida's and his proponents' “impossible” ethic as long as it undercuts its own promise, does not fully think through its foundation in the maternal, and fails to welcome the mother unconditionally. (shrink)

This article addresses the oft-neglected nexus between the mother and the machine, specifically in relation to the notion of ectogenesis (that is, conception, gestation and birth outside the maternal body). After a discussion of the technologies and the discourses of ectogenesis as symptomatic of what I call an ectogenetic desire, I move on to critically consider the work of Smith-Windsor on her own maternal experience with an incubator. This is followed by an evaluation of feminist writings on reproductive technologies, leading (...) to a discussion of why the critical dichotomy between the maternal body and the machine needs to be reevaluated, to develop the possibility of a different ethics of/for the maternal body. (shrink)

In this paper, I critically develop the Jain concept of nonharm as a feminist philosophical concept that calls for a change in our relation to living beings, specifically to animals. I build on the work of Josephine Donovan, Carol J. Adams, Jacques Derrida, Kelly Oliver, and Lori Gruen to argue for a change from an ethic of care and dialogue to an ethic of carefulness and nonpossession. I expand these discussions by considering the Jain philosophy of nonharm in relation to (...) feminist and other theories that advocate noneating of animals, “humane killing,” and “less harm.” Finally, I propose that a feminist appropriation of the Jain concept of nonharm helps us develop a feminist ethic of nonharm to all living beings. (shrink)