Fanny Söderbäck, "Revolutionary Time: On Time and Difference in Kristeva and Irigaray" (SUNY Press, 2019)
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What is the central argument of Fanny Söderbäck’s book *Revolutionary Time* about time and sexual difference?
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Hello and welcome to New Books in Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Sarah Tyson, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Denver, and I'm co-host of the channel along with Carrie Figdore, Robert Talise, and Alexis McLeod. Together we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Funny Soderbach. Асоцієт професор philosophy at DePaul University, her book Revolutionary Time. On time and difference in Kristava Narrigre is just out from SUNY Press. What is the relationship between time and sexual difference? Are the categories of linearity and circularity that have so dominated conceptions of time sufficient for the emancipatory aims of feminist theory?
In revolutionary time and time indifference in Christavan or Rigre. Soderback engages the work of Julia Cresteva and Lisa Regrey to argue that neither linear nor circular models of time make change possible. Only through returning to and revitalizing the past can we enliven the present in ways that make a new future possible. Time and sexual difference, she argues, must be thought together. Fanny Soderbach, welcome to New Books in Philosophy. Thank you. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background as a philosopher and how you came to write a book on time.
Yeah, so so again, my name is Fanny, um and um I I did my PhD in philosophy at the new school for social research. Um, but previously I had done um work in Sweden. I'm from Sweden originally. Um so I had studied literature mostly and gender studies, and then sort of by by chance I ended up doing philosophy for random life reasons. Um But at the new school basically this book is sort of uh uh thoroughly revised version of the dissertation that I wrote at the new school. Um, and I actually came to the new school thinking that I was gonna write a dissertation about eating disorders. Um But uh some way into that project it became clear that that was not what I wanted to do at the time. Um And so it sort of morphed into this project.
Um, I knew I wanted to work on Christie Vannie Regrey. I had been working in French feminism for a while. Um, but at that particular point, because I was concerned. ultimately with questions about political change and political activism and various sort of subversive practices, for lack of a better uh word. Um, I kind of realized that I had just taken a lot of concepts for granted in writing and thinking about change, and that one of them was time and and what sort of temporal um structure or framework would actually allow for change in the first place.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central argument of Fanny Söderbäck’s book *Revolutionary Time* about time and sexual difference?
0:00–6:44
2
How did Söderbäck’s academic journey—from literature and gender studies to a philosophy PhD—shape the development of her book?
6:44–14:48
3
Why did Söderbäck move away from an initial dissertation on eating disorders toward a project on temporality and political change?
14:48–23:35
4
What temporal structures does Söderbäck argue are necessary for feminist political activism and transformation?
23:35–31:08
5
In what ways does the book connect sexual difference with philosophical concepts of time?
31:08–39:06
6
Whose time is being examined in the book’s opening epigraphs, and why is this question crucial?
39:06–45:29
7
How are linear and circular models of time gendered, and why does Söderbäck claim they block genuine change?
45:29–52:43
8
What does ‘revolutionary time’ mean, and how does a return to the maternal and birth enable new, unpredictable futures?
52:43–59:09
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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