This article seeks to examine the precarious division between nature and culture in light of what appears to be a linguistic compliance by the human body. Through the work of Michel Foucault, Pierre Macherey and more specifically, Vicki Kirby, this article argues that nature (the body) and culture (discourse) are not inherently oppositional, thus the way we conceptualize the world must be inseparable from the ‘matter’ under investigation. Given this, discourse is not simply a re-presentation of the organic world, but is constitutive of, and inherently ‘writing’ the natural world it describes. Thus, rather than erecting material/ conceptual borders that give integrity to the nature/culture division, this article proposes a way to think difference more generously.
Braun, B.G. ( 1986) ‘Issues in Psychotherapy of Multiple Personality Disorder’, in B. G. Braun (ed.) Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder, pp. 1-28. Washington, DC : American Psychiatric Press.
2.
Bennett, A. ( 2000) ‘Re-Cognising Power: A Discourse Analysis of Power Relations’, unpublished thesis, University of New South Wales, Kensington.
3.
Chase, T. ( 1987) When Rabbit Howls. New York: Penguin.
4.
Chopra, D. ( 1989) Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine. New York: Bantam Books .
5.
Foucault, M. ( 1965[1961]) Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. London: Tavistock .
6.
Foucault, M. ( 1970[1966]) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. London: Tavistock.
7.
Foucault, M. ( 1973[1963]) The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. New York: Pantheon Books .
8.
Foucault, M. ( 1980a [1975]) ‘Two Lectures’, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed. and trans. C. Gordon, pp. 78-109. London: Harvester Press.
9.
Foucault, M. ( 1980b [1975]) ‘Power and Strategies’, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed. and trans. C. Gordon, pp. 134-46. London : Harvester Press.
10.
Foucault, M. ( 1980c [1975]) ‘Prison Talk’, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed. and trans. C. Gordon, pp. 37-55. London: Harvester Press.
11.
Foucault, M. ( 1980d [1975]) ‘The History of Sexuality’, in Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed. and trans. C. Gordon, pp. 183-94. London : Harvester Press.
12.
Foucault, M. ( 1988) ‘The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom’, in The Final Foucault, ed. J. Bernhauer and D. Rasmussen, trans. J. Gautheir, pp. 1-21. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
13.
Foucault, M. ( 1991a [1975]) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison . London: Penguin.
14.
Foucault, M. ( 1991b) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality: with Two Lectures by and an Interview with Michel Foucault, ed. G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
15.
Foucault, M. ( 1998 [1976]) The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality, Volume 1. London : Penguin.
16.
Fraser, S. ( 1992) The Quest for the Fourth Monkey. Toronto : Key Porter Books.
17.
Kirby, V. ( 1989) ‘Corporeographies’, West: An Interdisciplinary Journal1(1): 8-11.
18.
Kirby, V. ( 1994) ‘Viral Identities: Feminisms and Postmodernisms’ , in A. Burns and N. Grieve (eds) Australian Women: Contemporary Feminist Thought, pp. 121-33. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
19.
Kirby, V. ( 1997) Telling Flesh: The Substance of the Corporeal. New York: Routledge.
20.
Kirby, V. ( 2006) Judith Butler: Live Theory. London and New York: Continuum.
21.
Lévi-Strauss, C. ( 1958) Structural Anthropology. London: Allen Lane/Penguin.
22.
Macherey, P. ( 1992) ‘Towards a Natural History of Norms’, in Michel Foucault Philosopher, pp. 176-92, trans. T. Armstrong. New York: Routledge.
23.
Nichols, K.J., Galluzzi, K.E., Bates, B., Husted, B.A., Leleszi, J.P., Simon, K., Lavery, D. and Cass, C. ( 2005) ‘AOA’s Position against Use of Placebos for Pain Management in End-of-Life Care’, The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association105(3); at: www.jaoa.orge/cgi/content/full/105/3_Suppl/25#SEC1
24.
Putnam, F.W. ( 1989) Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder . New York: Guilford Press.
25.
Saussure, F. de (1981 [1916]) Course in General Linguistics . Glasgow: Fontana/ Collins.
26.
Talbot, M. ( 1996) The Holographic Universe. London: HarperCollins.
