Metamorphoses - by Rosi Braidotti (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The discussions about the ethical, political and human implications of the postmodernist condition have been raging for longer than most of us care to remember. They have been especially fierce within feminism. After a brief flirtation with postmodern thinking in the 1980s, mainstream feminist circles seem to have turned their back on the staple notions of poststructuralist philosophy. Metamorphoses takes stock of the situation and attempts to reset priorities within the poststructuralist feminist agenda.


Cross-referring in a creative way to Deleuze's and Irigaray's respective philosophies of difference, the book addresses key notions such as embodiment, immanence, sexual difference, nomadism and the materiality of the subject. Metamorphoses also focuses on the implications of these theories for cultural criticism and a redefinition of politics. It provides a vivid overview of contemporary culture, with special emphasis on technology, the monstrous imaginary and the recurrent obsession with 'the flesh' in the age of techno-bodies.


This highly original contribution to current debates is written for those who find changes and transformations challenging and necessary. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, feminist theory, gender studies, sociology, social theory and cultural studies.

From the Back Cover

The discussions about the ethical, political and human implications of the postmodernist condition have been raging for longer than most of us care to remember. They have been especially fierce within feminism. After a brief flirtation with postmodern thinking in the 1980s, mainstream feminist circles seem to have turned their back on the staple notions of poststructuralist philosophy. Metamorphoses takes stock of the situation and attempts to reset priorities within the poststructuralist feminist agenda.

Cross-referring in a creative way to Deleuze's and Irigaray's respective philosophies of difference, the book addresses key notions such as embodiment, immanence, sexual difference, nomadism and the materiality of the subject. Metamorphoses also focuses on the implications of these theories for cultural criticism and a redefinition of politics. It provides a vivid overview of contemporary culture, with special emphasis on technology, the monstrous imaginary and the recurrent obsession with 'the flesh' in the age of techno-bodies.

This highly original contribution to current debates is written for those who find changes and transformations challenging and necessary. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, feminist theory, gender studies, sociology, social theory and cultural studies.

Review Quotes

"Wonderfully thought provoking, highly stylized, and imaginatively written."

Kevin Pelletier, Cultural Critique

"Replete with situated, embedded figurations, Metamorphoses is a book to grow with. Emergences, transformations, and materialist becomings of all kinds are the subject of this rich philosophical work. Insects, women, philosophers, cyborgs - promising monsters all, and all are enlisted in drawing up a cartography of becoming. Braidotti writes with enormous energy and style. Never forgetting the subject structured in sexual difference, she searches for figurations that can guide us to emergences more attuned to justice, pleasure, and historical specificity. This book warms my biophilic heart, as it informs my feminist soul and gives pleasure to my embodied mind."

Donna J. Haraway, University of California at Santa Cruz

About the Author

Rosi Braidotti is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Utrecht, and Director of the Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies