Editing Luce Irigaray (section)

==Themes==

=== Philosophy ===
Some of Irigaray's books written in her lyrical mode are imaginary dialogues with significant contributors to Western philosophy, such as [[Nietzsche]] and [[Heidegger]]. However, Irigaray also writes a significant body of work on [[Hegel]], [[Descartes]], [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]] and [[Levinas]], [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]], as well as [[Merleau-Ponty]]. Her academic work is largely influenced by a wide range of philosophers and cannot be limited to one approach.

=== Language ===
She continued to conduct empirical studies about language in a variety of settings, researching the differences between the way men and women speak. This focus on sexual difference is the key characteristic of Irigaray's oeuvre, since she is seeking to provide a site from which a feminine language can eventuate. Through her research, Irigaray discovered a correlation between the suppression of female thought in the Western world and language of men and women. She concluded that there are gendered language patterns that denote dominance in men and subjectivity in women.

=== Sexual difference ===
Building on but departing from Lacan, Irigaray asserts that the phallus has functioned as the central signifier of meaning and subjectivity, leaving no space for women to exist as autonomous subjects.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Stone |first=Alison |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34617/chapter/294782900 |title=Sexual Difference |date=2015-02-03 |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-last=Disch |editor-first=Lisa |volume=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328581.013.43 |editor-last2=Hawkesworth |editor-first2=Mary}}</ref> To counter this, she proposes the creation of a new [[symbolic order]] that acknowledges and values genuine sexual difference, allowing women to develop their own forms of speech, desire, and representation. Her vision is not for gender neutrality but for a world in which male and female exist as two equally recognized yet distinct identities.<ref name=":3" />

=== Gender identity ===
Since 1990, Irigaray's work has turned increasingly toward women and men together. In ''Between East and West, From Singularity to Community'' (1999) and in ''The Way of Love'' (2002), she imagines new forms of love for a global democratic community.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3447000476/GVRL?u=psucic&sid=GVRL&xid=3b9c7978|title=Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction |volume=3 |last1=Merriman|first1=John|last2=Winter|first2=Jay|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=2006|location=Detroit}}</ref> In ''An Ethics of Sexual Difference'', she introduces the idea of relationships between men and women centered around a bond other than reproduction. She acknowledges themes including finiteness and [[intersubjectivity]], embodied divinity, and the emotional distinction between the two sexes. She concludes that Western culture is unethical due to gender discrimination.

=== Politics ===
Irigaray is active in a feminist movement in Italy, but she refused to belong to any one movement because she does not like the competitive dynamic between the feminist movements.