Music, Philosophy and Gender in Nancy, Lacoue-Labarthe, Badiou

Description

Analyses the role of music in the work of Nancy, Lacoue-Labarthe and Badiou, and the role of gender in the philosophy of musicAnalyses the role or characterisation of music in both well-known and lesser-known texts including Á l’écoute, Le Chant des Muses and Five Lessons on WagnerArticulates the stakes of a musico-philosophical interaction, with a central focus on the way gender is deployed, understood or constructed within this nexusAppeals to the growing interest in sound studies and/or sound cultures and an interrogation of the role of music in particular within this broader trendContributes to wider debates about the relation between aesthetics, ethics, philosophy and identity politicsWhat counts as music for contemporary thinkers? Why is music of use to philosophers and how do they use it in their work? How do philosophers decide what music is and what assumptions are uncritically inherited in this move? And what is the philosophical relationship between music and gender?To answer these questions, Sarah Hickmott looks at the way music is used, characterised and understood in the work of Jean-Luc Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Alain Badiou. Despite the differences in their philosophical-theoretical positions, all of these writers invoke music – both directly and indirectly – to negotiate their relationship to ontology, politics, ethics and aesthetics. Given a longer philosophical history, dating back at least to Plato, of aligning music with the feminine, she also focuses on the way gender is deployed, understood and constructed within the philosophy of music.