A feminist approach to "The Visible and the Invisible" through Karen Barad's agential realism

Gina Zavota

pp. 147-169

in: Beata Stawarska, Patrick R. Flack (eds), Merleau-Ponty and structuralism, Acta Structuralica 2, 2018.

Abstract

In this essay, I argue that the “agential realism” proposed by physicist and feminist theorist Karen Barad provides a paradigm for conceiving of Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh in a manner that preserves the particularities of bodies and prevents the eradication of sexual difference. In Meeting the Universe Halfway, Barad describes the “phenomena” which are at the center of her ontology as neither mind-independent objects nor mental constructs, but rather “entangled” complexes consisting of both material and discursive elements. Drawing on Niels Bohr’s work, Barad argues that individual agencies do not exist independently, but only emerge through their “intra-action” or entanglement, in much the same way in which Merleau-Ponty’s perceiver and perceived are mutually constituted through the intertwining of the flesh. Importantly, inasmuch as Barad’s phenomena incorporate discursive elements, individual agencies cannot be conceived of outside of their social, political, and historical contexts any more than they can be abstracted from the material conditions of their existence. By reading “The Intertwining – The Chiasm” through Barad’s agential realism, I argue that the “entanglements” of the flesh can be conceived of in a way that preserves the specificity of individuals, in particular sexual difference. If, as Barad maintains, materiality is necessarily intertwined with social and historical contexts, then, far from erasing difference, the flesh constitutes an inexhaustible space for it.

Cited authors

Merleau-Ponty Maurice

Barad Karen