Oxana Timofeeva - Böcker

Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals: A Philosophy is an original and ambitious treatment of the "animal question". While philosophers have always made distinctions between human beings and animals, Timofeeva imagines a world free of such walls and borders. Timofeeva shows the way towards the full acceptance of our animality; an acceptance which does not mean the return to our animal roots, or anything similar. The freedom generated by this acceptance operates through negativity; is an effect of the rejection of the very core of metaphysical philosophy and Christian culture, traditionally opposed to our ‘animal’ nature and seemingly detached from it.With a foreword by Slavoj Žižek, this book is accessible, jargon-free and ideal for students and all those interested in re-imagining how we engage with animals and the environment.

Oxana Timofeeva's The History of Animals: A Philosophy is an original and ambitious treatment of the "animal question". While philosophers have always made distinctions between human beings and animals, Timofeeva imagines a world free of such walls and borders. Timofeeva shows the way towards the full acceptance of our animality; an acceptance which does not mean the return to our animal roots, or anything similar. The freedom generated by this acceptance operates through negativity; is an effect of the rejection of the very core of metaphysical philosophy and Christian culture, traditionally opposed to our ‘animal’ nature and seemingly detached from it.With a foreword by Slavoj Žižek, this book is accessible, jargon-free and ideal for students and all those interested in re-imagining how we engage with animals and the environment.

This book is a philosophical essay on the sun. It draws on Georges Bataille’s theories of the solar economy and solar violence and demonstrates their relevance to a world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.The sun, which, since Antiquity, has played an essential role in our utopian imaginations, is the ultimate source of energy, both productive and destructive. According to Georges Bataille, its infinite generosity can be taken as the model for human societies, which suggests an alternative to the capitalist economy with its infinite expansion, colonization, and disastrous consequences on the cosmic scale.Taking a step from solar economy to solar politics, Timofeeva locates the grounds for it in solidarity with nature, treated neither as a master nor as a slave, but as a comrade.The book will appeal to students, academics, artists, and other readers interested in the philosophy of nature, ecology, social and political theory, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and the humanities generally.

This book is a philosophical essay on the sun. It draws on Georges Bataille’s theories of the solar economy and solar violence and demonstrates their relevance to a world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.The sun, which, since Antiquity, has played an essential role in our utopian imaginations, is the ultimate source of energy, both productive and destructive. According to Georges Bataille, its infinite generosity can be taken as the model for human societies, which suggests an alternative to the capitalist economy with its infinite expansion, colonization, and disastrous consequences on the cosmic scale.Taking a step from solar economy to solar politics, Timofeeva locates the grounds for it in solidarity with nature, treated neither as a master nor as a slave, but as a comrade.The book will appeal to students, academics, artists, and other readers interested in the philosophy of nature, ecology, social and political theory, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and the humanities generally.

This book examines violence and sexuality after Freud. Its characters, though, are not women and men, but rather animals and children. Focusing on three famous Freudian cases in which little boys had issues with animals – Little Hans, The Rat Man, and the Wolf Man – it revises the role played by animals in male gender socialization. Timofeeva demonstrates the relevance of psychoanalysis for anyone who wants to understand how patriarchy works, but she also points to its limitations. For Freud, sexuality creates the background of our psychic lives, and unconscious sexual fantasies are the origins of psychic disorders such as hysteria, obsessions and phobias. But what are the origins of sexual fantasies?  Timofeeva argues that behind psychic dramas of sexuality there is something else: a mechanism of violence which she calls ‘the machine of masculinity’ and which she analyses both through Freud’s cases and through the lens of religion, anthropology and her own life experiences. Wolves, rats and horses are magical agents that connect us to the world of the dead – that is, to the history of our culture in which monotheism replaced totemic practices but the basic psychosocial matrix of turning love into violence continues to reproduce itself.

This book examines violence and sexuality after Freud. Its characters, though, are not women and men, but rather animals and children. Focusing on three famous Freudian cases in which little boys had issues with animals – Little Hans, The Rat Man, and the Wolf Man – it revises the role played by animals in male gender socialization. Timofeeva demonstrates the relevance of psychoanalysis for anyone who wants to understand how patriarchy works, but she also points to its limitations. For Freud, sexuality creates the background of our psychic lives, and unconscious sexual fantasies are the origins of psychic disorders such as hysteria, obsessions and phobias. But what are the origins of sexual fantasies?  Timofeeva argues that behind psychic dramas of sexuality there is something else: a mechanism of violence which she calls ‘the machine of masculinity’ and which she analyses both through Freud’s cases and through the lens of religion, anthropology and her own life experiences. Wolves, rats and horses are magical agents that connect us to the world of the dead – that is, to the history of our culture in which monotheism replaced totemic practices but the basic psychosocial matrix of turning love into violence continues to reproduce itself.