Sexistence

“[From] our preeminent living philosopher of being-with. . . . A profound―and profoundly necessary―meditation on sex and being.” —Tim Dean, author of Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking

Sex, more than just a part of our experience, troubles our conceptions of existence.

Drawing on a fascinating array of sources, ancient and modern, philosophical and literary, Jean-Luc Nancy explores and upholds the form-giving thrust of the drive. Nancy reminds us that we are more comfortable with the drama of prohibitions, ideals, repression, transgression, and destruction, which often hamper thinking about sex and gender, than with the affirmation of an originary trouble at the limits of language that divides being and opens the world.

Sexistence develops a new philosophical account of sexuality that resonates with contemporary research on gender and biopolitics. Without attempting to be comprehensive, the book ranges from the ancient world through psychoanalysis to discover the turbulence of the drive at the heart of existence.

“Written with clarity, wit, and depth, Sexistence takes up the challenges posed by sex to thinking, speaking, art, and the very definition of the human . . . Nancy [argues] . . . sex is closer to art and language than it is to any finite empirical experience.” —Elissa Marder, Emory University