"Philosophy and the Maternal Body" is a fascinating exploration of an overlooked aspect of feminist thought: what is the role of maternity in philosophy and in what ways has it been used by male theorists to effectively "silence" the voices of women in philosophy? Drawing on rich examples such as Plato's allegory of the cave, Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein's writing on the mother and the mother-daughter relationship, and the psychoanalytic and feminist insights of Irigaray and Kristeva, Michelle Boulous Walker clearly shows how terms such as denial, repression and foreclosure offer crucial insight into the philosophical construction of the maternal body.

Introduction. Part One: Reading Silence 1. Speaking Silence: Woman's Voice in Philosophy 2. Philosophy: Reading Denial 3. Reading Psychoanalysis: Psychotic Texts/Maternal Pre-texts 4. Philosophy and Silence: The Différend 5. Unquiet Silence: Kristeva Reading Marx with Freud Part Two: Speaking Silence 6. Kristeva: Naming the Problem 7. Collecting Mothers: Women at the Symposium 8. Mothers and Daughters: Speaking Conclusion: Speaking With(in) The Symbolic Bibliography.