"This careful and yet passionate book clears a straightforward path through the complexities of contemporary
debates about subjectivity and the "subject." Linking the idea of the "subject" to metaphors
of space and spatiality, the work helps break the impasse in current theory by pushing psychoanalytical theory
back towards the political. In a series of impressive geopolitical, historical, theoretical, and feminist readings,
Kirby reasserts the texture of everyday life and its validity in opposition to the postculturalist rejection. Thus
her work does nothing less than reclaim the political value of "experience." A powerful book, shot through
with an autobiographical tone yet winningly argued, it will be of interest to anyone who has ever been frustrated
by the gap between contemporary theory and everyday life."
--Paul Smith, George Mason University
"Fascinating....This book is a `must read' for all cultural geographers within and beyond the discipline."
Ecumene "This is essential reading for anyone interested in the theory and politics of "the subject"....Kirby
deepens our understanding of how transformations in concrete and psychic spaces have been interlinked facets of
the cultural upheavals known as modernism and postmodernism. She makes a series of important and strategic interventions
to influential theoretical debates for practical, political ends: to imagine alternative spaces of the gendered
subject and everyday life. To a geographer, this is a deeply satisfying text, taking as seriously as it does the
multiplicity of spaces and the distinctions as well as the interrelations between internal and external spaces,
discursive and concrete geographies, and the psychic and the social. This is a book that works with space and against
simplicity."
--Geraldine Pratt, University of British Columbia
"Anyone interested in the politics of space and subjectivity will find this an immensely rewarding, thought-provoking
and invaluable read."
--Steve Pile, The Open University
Guilford Publications Web Site, January, 2001
Summary
A provocative and illuminating work, Indifferent Boundaries explores the ways that concepts of subjectivity
are vitally grounded in metaphors of and assumptions about space. Kathleen Kirby demonstrates how changes that
have taken place in real and conceptual space from the Renaissance to the postmodern era have led to a critical
rearticulation of the subject by feminist, psychoanalytic, and poststructuralist theorists, among others. Tracing
changing ideas about the self--from the stable form of the Enlightenment individual to the postmodern sujet en
procès appraises both the liberatory possibilities and the everyday cultural implications of the contemporary
"space of the subject." This tenacious and substantive investigation of the lexicon of space sheds much
needed light in previously dark corners of the poststructuralist edifice, and is certain to appeal to a broad,
interdisciplinary audience.
The volume opens with a discussion of the proliferation of spatial language in current theoretical discourse. Kirby
highlights the reformative powers of representation, proposing that the recent emphasis on space results from the
praxis-oriented attempt of theory to reconcile the realms of language and reality. Elegantly reasoned chapters
cover topics including:
* Feminist theory and the politics of location
* Renaissance versus postmodern practices of mapping
* Freudian subjectivity and the twentieth century deterioration of space
* Poststructural philosophy and the reconfiguration of the subject
* The physical and psychic contours of gendered subjectivity
Throughout, Kirby critically evaluates the cultural implications of varying representations of subjectivity, skillfully
navigating the increasingly permeable boundary between the individual self and the shared social and political
landscape.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Subjects in Space: Variations on a Theme
1. Defining the Space of the Subject: Investigating the Boundaries of Feminism
2. Lost in Space: Establishing the Limits of Identity
3. Freudian Fabrications: De-Forming Modern Spaces
4. Vertigo: Postmodern Spaces and the Politics of the Subject
5. Indecent Exposure: Redefining the Spaces of Gender
