1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463389803321

Autore

Aristarkhova Irina

Titolo

Hospitality of the Matrix : Philosophy, Biomedicine, and Culture / / Irina Aristarkhova

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, NY : , : Columbia University Press, , [2012]

©2012

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 232 p.) : ill

Disciplina

361/.0072

Soggetti

Birth (Philosophy)

Human reproduction

Reproduction

Sex role

Nurturing behavior

Hospitality - Miscellanea

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Journeys of the Matrix: In and Out of the Maternal Body -- 2. Materializing Hospitality -- 3. The Matter of the Matrix in Biomedicine -- 4. Mother-Machine and the Hospitality of Nursing -- 5. Male Pregnancy, Matrix, and Hospitality -- Conclusion: Hosting the Mother -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The question "Where do we come from?" has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and artists for generations. This book reorients the question of the matrix as a place where everything comes from (chora, womb, incubator) by recasting it in terms of acts of "matrixial/maternal hospitality" producing space and matter of and for the other. Irina Aristarkhova theorizes such hospitality with the potential to go beyond tolerance in understanding self/other relations. Building on and critically evaluating a wide range of historical and contemporary scholarship, she applies this theoretical framework to the science, technology, and art of ectogenesis (artificial womb, neonatal incubators, and other types of generation outside of the maternal body)



and proves the question "Can the machine nurse?" is critical when approaching and understanding the functional capacities and failures of incubating technologies, such as artificial placenta. Aristarkhova concludes with the science and art of male pregnancy, positioning the condition as a question of the hospitable man and newly defined fatherhood and its challenge to the conception of masculinity as unable to welcome the other.