cover image Last Sex

Last Sex

. Palgrave MacMillan, $18 (267pp) ISBN 978-0-312-09682-3

Arthur and Marilouise Kroker ( The Hysterical Male ) conclude their feminist-theory trilogy with 18 works grouped around the theme of the human body. Careening through leftist academic thought and street-tough life experience, it will appeal mainly to those whose White European Male gurus of choice are Marx, Derrida and Foucault and who believe that ``cultural fascism'' is the undisputed province of conservatives. Kathy Acker contemplates her experience of bodybuilding as an act that resists verbal language and yet constitutes a ``language of the body.'' Dianne Rothleder considers human reproduction as the fruit of capitalism, and finds that capital is like a virus: both ``latch onto living beings, penetrate them, and colonize them.'' Shannon Bell interviews a ``cross-gendered performance'' instructor, a transsexual whose goal is ``deconstructing gender'' and who blithely accepts inequality: ``at the bottom of anyone's transgender heap is the closet case who puts on his wife's panties when she is away.'' Carel Rowe offers an effective reading of Peter Greenaway's films, concluding that although female characters are humiliated, they ``learn more, develop more and, ultimately, prevail'' over men. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Oct.)