[Blake_Stimson,_Gregory_Sholette]_Collectivism_aft(z-lib
Beyond Representation and AfWliation 263maternal indiscriminate love to serve revolution, such as in Maxim Gorky’sseminal novel Mother, written in 1907). Through this extrapolation of theintimate (homely) into the public (community), as I will analyze further,Soldiers’ Mothers surpass the problem of collaboration with other groupsand organizations that are based on codes of afWliation. The loss of “enemy”does not limit or reduce their political activism as the notion of mother isambivalent toward such dilemmas—every enemy has (had) a mother. Maternityand motherhood (though not necessarily connected) allow for care tobe expressed toward others without any proof or need of any conWrmationof one’s sincerity. The idea of political, ideological afWliation does not makeany sense within the context of motherhood. Correspondingly, the validityof a mother’s interests and convictions does not need a Program, a Code, ora Law.LEVINAS, IRIGARAY, AND THE POLITICSOF MOTHERHOODFor the past few decades the notions of mother and motherhood have beenactively discussed in feminist literature, especially through the works of LuceIrigaray and Julia Kristeva. The ethical implications of maternity and motherhoodhave been explored by Drucilla Cornell, among others. In addition tothe fact that their ideas are meant to transform the contemporary discourseon ethics and subjectivity, they have direct relation to engendering alternativepolitical strategies and concepts. Unfortunately, this political dimensionthat relates to direct political action often remains unexplored, producingan all too sanitized split between theory and practice, rendering both ofthem unproductive and frustrated.By deWnition in our communal and philosophical tradition, themother is, as Levinas puts it, “a being for the other, and not for oneself.” 12The idea of care, developed by a friend and early mentor of Levinas—Heidegger—wastaken up with negative anxious implications by Sartre, thoughfor Levinas care, based on the maternal, has always been a possibility, a welcomingof positive ethics, of ethics as such. Obviously, this connection betweenfriend and other without implying other as a potential enemy Wrst is apossibility of a different kind of politics that has been developed by Soldiers’Mothers in a radically activist and embodied form, and without “forgettingthe mother” (as is the case of writings by Levinas).Levinas uses the maternal relation as a door that opens onto ethicaland religious dimensions. However, maternal relation is only a passivepossibility, though the one that opens itself up to allow the appearance ofthe realm of the social and cultural. Similarly, for Kristeva the experience
264 Irina Aristarkhovaof motherhood is preoedipal, that is, it exists outside the establishment ofculture and society. It is in this sense the origin of both ethics and politics,both of which come after, as a result of leaving a mother behind. Just as forKristeva, the maternal is presocial and precultural for Levinas. The mainfunction that the mother serves for Levinas, the one that is fundamental toour analysis, is its alternative relation to others. With the mother’s help,Levinas argues, one can relate to others outside the enemy/friend opposition,making the impossible possible—overcoming the ontological situationof singular Being thrown into the world by no one. In the case of Levinas,it becomes even more general—the mother is situated so as to highlight thatethical relation, although the mother herself is not placed anywhere withinthe realm of the ethical but instead as its ground or origin.When the maternal is left behind we have to ask ourselves, why?Why is the mother left behind, why has that home to be locked away fromthe world around it? And why is the mother positioned within/as home inthe Wrst place? The maternal function, as Irigaray puts it, serves as a basis ofsocial and political order, the same for the order of desire, but the motherherself is always limited by the necessity. As soon as necessity—individualor collective—is fulWlled, often there is nothing left over from the maternalfunction. There is also nothing left from this mother’s energy to fulWll herown desires and needs, especially in its religious, political, and social dimensions.13 It is clear that in some sense claiming the political as maternal andvice versa is to go against the grain of all traditions, political and philosophical,as tradition itself is based on leaving the mother behind in the Wrstplace. Since traditionally mothers are eased out of civil and military societies,from culture as such, what remains of them is an idea of mother, translatableinto Motherland and Homeland. She herself is welcomed only as ametaphor.Rendered as both anterior and interior to the public realm, themother must remain outside the social and religious Welds and cannot be apolitical activist herself without references to masculine political subjectivity.Mother represents the unspoken and the precultural; everything that isbefore the self is articulated politically. This Levinasian position undermineshis claim to achieve a new ethics of difference (against the ontological traditionof sameness), since it starts from acknowledging and then subsumingthe difference of the mother. It exiles mother from the realm of political,social, and cultural, and especially theological. It appropriates maternal experienceto go onto another level—the level of ethics and the proper relationto the other.Irigaray has argued that the Western tradition is really a matricidaltradition 14 where the Wgure of the mother is symbolically annihilated for
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264 Irina Aristarkhova
of motherhood is preoedipal, that is, it exists outside the establishment of
culture and society. It is in this sense the origin of both ethics and politics,
both of which come after, as a result of leaving a mother behind. Just as for
Kristeva, the maternal is presocial and precultural for Levinas. The main
function that the mother serves for Levinas, the one that is fundamental to
our analysis, is its alternative relation to others. With the mother’s help,
Levinas argues, one can relate to others outside the enemy/friend opposition,
making the impossible possible—overcoming the ontological situation
of singular Being thrown into the world by no one. In the case of Levinas,
it becomes even more general—the mother is situated so as to highlight that
ethical relation, although the mother herself is not placed anywhere within
the realm of the ethical but instead as its ground or origin.
When the maternal is left behind we have to ask ourselves, why?
Why is the mother left behind, why has that home to be locked away from
the world around it? And why is the mother positioned within/as home in
the Wrst place? The maternal function, as Irigaray puts it, serves as a basis of
social and political order, the same for the order of desire, but the mother
herself is always limited by the necessity. As soon as necessity—individual
or collective—is fulWlled, often there is nothing left over from the maternal
function. There is also nothing left from this mother’s energy to fulWll her
own desires and needs, especially in its religious, political, and social dimensions.
13 It is clear that in some sense claiming the political as maternal and
vice versa is to go against the grain of all traditions, political and philosophical,
as tradition itself is based on leaving the mother behind in the Wrst
place. Since traditionally mothers are eased out of civil and military societies,
from culture as such, what remains of them is an idea of mother, translatable
into Motherland and Homeland. She herself is welcomed only as a
metaphor.
Rendered as both anterior and interior to the public realm, the
mother must remain outside the social and religious Welds and cannot be a
political activist herself without references to masculine political subjectivity.
Mother represents the unspoken and the precultural; everything that is
before the self is articulated politically. This Levinasian position undermines
his claim to achieve a new ethics of difference (against the ontological tradition
of sameness), since it starts from acknowledging and then subsuming
the difference of the mother. It exiles mother from the realm of political,
social, and cultural, and especially theological. It appropriates maternal experience
to go onto another level—the level of ethics and the proper relation
to the other.
Irigaray has argued that the Western tradition is really a matricidal
tradition 14 where the Wgure of the mother is symbolically annihilated for