Braidotti - Patterns of Dissonance: a Study of Women and Contemporary Philosophy

Patterns of Dissonance owes so much to so many friends and colleagues, that I cannot thank them all here. Special gratitude goes to the friends with whom I studied in Paris: Meaghan Morris, Paul Patton and David Wills. Of great importance were two feminist study groups I was involved in while writing my Ph.D. in Paris: in the first instance Alice Jardine, Anna Gibbs and Jane Weinstock, who were later joined by Claire Duchen, Nancy Huston, Danielle Haase-Dubosc and Naomi Schor. I owe warm-hearted thanks in particular to Alice Jardine whose book Gynesis intertwines with my own, each echoing the other, in a way unique to collective feminist research and writing.

I am very grateful to my teachers and professors: Jenny Lloyd, Hlne Vedrine and Michelle Perrot. I wish to dedicate a fond thought to the president of my Ph.D. panel, Franois Chtelet, now deceased. The grants commissions should also be remembered: all my thanks to the Australian National University in Canberra, who sponsored both my undergraduate and my postgraduate training through several scholarships. To the French Foreign Affairs Scholarship Office in Paris that granted me four years of much-needed financial assistance. To the International Federation of University Women in Geneva, who awarded me the Winifred Cullis Grant for one year.

I am indebted to my translator Liz Guild, who tamed the French prose in which this book was originally written and helped me with sound editorial advice.

I have been particularly inspired by the women of the Paris-based feminist journal Histoires dElles (197780) and in particular to Oristelle Bonis, Nancy Huston, Do Pujebet and Leila Sebbar. My thanks also to all those who participated in the Franco-Belgian journal Les Cahiers du Grif, in its fifteen years of glorious history, and especially to Franoise Collin, the founding member. To the magazine Noi Donne in Rome, and particularly Anna Maria Crispino. To the friends of Womens Studies International Forum; to Elizabeth Weed and Naomi Schor, who started Differences and to Alice Jardine, Brian Massumi, Heidi Gelpi and Bob Small for Copyright.

Special thanks to Romano Onori, Catharine K. Stimpson, Geoff Wiseman, Torild Skard, Danielle Haase-Dubosc, Nancy K. Miller and Luce Irigaray, for setting the example. Acknowledgements are also due to many generations of students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, for their enthusiasm, their criticism, their open-mindedness. I owe special thanks to my research assistants at the University of Utrecht, for their generosity and patience.

All my thanks to my sister Giovanna, and to my brother Augusto: they are the oldest friends I have.

To my friends scattered all over the world, especially to Wendy Spinks, Janice Gothard, Penny Richards, Helen Szaday, Maurita Harney, Sally Duncan-Taylor, Katy Hamilton-Baillie, Emma Simonin, Morag Shiach. I am especially indebted to Oristelle Bonis, who helped with the early drafts of the text, to Anne-Marie Dardigna, who support never failed; to Teresa Brennan who helped me conclude and to Anneke Smelik who read through the last version, with great care. And to Rita Moatti, of(f) course.

For Bruna and Mario

That is where I disagree with the philosophers. They talk about passionate things but there is no passion in them. Never talk happiness with a philosopher.

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

Because they are human and not gods, I now and then strike a bargain with philosophers. Philosophers cannot promise you anything. You cannot make a deal with them; but betrayal is not within their power either.

Miriam Guensberg, Foto Josef