Rosi Braidotti’s “Nomadic Subjects”

Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory is Rosi Braidotti’s notorious foundation of her feminist psychosocial bridge that takes us from critique to creativity, as I will argue in this chapter. Written in the early 1990s, the book builds theoretical alliances and opens dialogue across feminist theory and movements, holding onto the transformative spaces of inventiveness of feminist praxis, beyond the constrictions of the life of “phallogocentric” power. Subjectivity, ontology, sexual difference, and Women’s studies (rather than the more contemporary term Gender Studies) are philosophical and political concepts weaved through the tome; themes that up to this day characterize Braidotti’s contribution to feminist philosophy and resonate closely with the broader field of Psychosocial Studies. The proposal of the book, or Braidotti’s figuration, is that of the “nomadic subject,” or a subject that is embodied, inscribed in history and yet connected and relational and carved beyond an idea of a subject that is anchored in identification. Psychoanalysis, in its potencies and shortcomings, features widely in her argument, which demonstrates her process of thinking-with, rather than against, feminist thought both from European (mostly French, Italian, and German-inspired) and Anglophone traditions. Expanding on “difference” as a plural, affirmative, and nuanced category of Psychosocial thinking, Nomadic Subjects offers a solid and intimate ground for Braidotti’s work over the last three decades and her contributions to research and practice in our field. In this chapter, we will explore central elements of her work whilst addressing the resistances to “nomadic” thinking by contemporary psychoanalytic feminist scholars.