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Transcendence, Materialism, and the Reenchantment of Nature

In: Women and the Divine

Author

Listed:
  • Patrice Haynes

Abstract

Contemporary feminist theorists typically regard the notion of transcendence with suspicion. By “transcendence” is meant “going beyond” or “surpassing” a limit or context. The problem for a number of feminists is that, certainly in Western thought, it is the body, and the material world more generally, that is usually identified as the limit to overcome and so transcend. Given that Western culture traditionally associates bodiliness and materiality with the female sex, “woman” has come to represent the constraints of material immanence, and women are thus devalued in the process. In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir famously laments the way in which women, defined as the “other” by men, are “doomed” to immanence (29, 726). She urges women to claim transcendence for themselves and, in doing so, to realize their freedom and subjectivity. However, de Beauvoir is often criticized by later feminists for perpetuating patriarchal conceptions of transcendence and immanence.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrice Haynes, 2009. "Transcendence, Materialism, and the Reenchantment of Nature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Gillian Howie & J’annine Jobling (ed.), Women and the Divine, chapter 0, pages 55-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-12074-8_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-137-12074-8_4
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