Più generi, strane famiglie

Abstract

Starting with the theme of birth, the essay shows how deconstruction is at work with regard to issues of gender and the family construct, subtracting them from a binary logic. With respect to gender, Derrida does not theorize a neutralization, but on the contrary a pluralization of sexual and gender differences; with respect to motherhood, a deconstruction of the essentializing fetishes makes it possible to break the woman-mother-origin nexus, in the direction of the elaboration of motherhood as “legal fiction”. The essay shows the fruitfulness of Derrida’s thought within the current public and political debate.