Maggie Nelson
Maggie Nelson (born 1973) is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, ae ...
, published in 2015. It mixes philosophical theory with memoir. The book discusses her romantic relationship with the transgender artist
Harry Dodge
Harry Dodge (born 1966) is an American sculptor, performer, video artist, professor, and writer.
His solo exhibitions have included works in New York, Los Angeles and Connecticut, while his group exhibitions have taken place at The New Museum, t ...
leading to her pregnancy as well as topics ranging from the death of a parent, transgender embodiment, academia, familial relationships, and the limitations of language. Nelson also explores and criticizes ideas from several philosophers including
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...
,
Judith Butler
Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...
and
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (; May 2, 1950 – April 12, 2009) was an American academic scholar in the fields of gender studies, queer theory ( queer studies), and critical theory. Sedgwick published several books considered groundbreaking in the fiel ...
. The title is a reference to
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
' idea that to love someone is similar to an Argonaut who constantly replaces parts of their ship without the ship changing names. The book won a
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".