Unexpected bodies. Radicalities, possible futures and somatechnics
Room 113, Università degli Studi di Milano
Via Festa del Perdono 7
Abstract
One of the radical dimensions of feminist theories lies in their ability to look critically at bodies, not only by questioning the separation between body and mind and between nature and culture,
but also by analysing the status of bodies themselves. In this process, feminist theories overturn the political paradigms that have used the body as a metaphor, starting precisely from material bodies and their particularity. Taking Carla Lonzi’s reflections as a starting point, we will try to trace possible jagged lines that connect the gestures of clitoral women to those of cyborgs, in order to ask what form of future is emerging. To this end, we will examine the idea of somatechnics as an unforeseen dimension that opens up unprecedented political actions and collective subjects that are constructed precisely by projecting themselves into possible futures.
Bio
Elisa Virgili is an independent researcher working on gender studies, queer theories and political philosophy. She is part of the Politesse Research Centre and the GIFTS network, and teaches a political philosophy workshop in prison with Carlotta Cossutta. She recently translated for Asterisk Editions Gaga Feminism. Sex, Gender and the End of the Norm by Jack Halberstam.
Carlotta Cossutta is a precarious researcher in political philosophy, interested in the history of women’s political thought and feminist, transfeminist and queer theories. Part of the Politesse research centre and the GIFTS network, she does not know how to separate theory from practice, so many of her reflections are nourished by the Ambrosia collective. Together with Elisa Virgili, she runs the political philosophy workshop in prison. She recently published Avere potere su se stessi: politica e femminilità in Mary Wollstonecraft for ETS.