Following François Laruelle's nonstandard philosophy and the work of Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, Luce Irigaray, and Rosi Braidotti, Katerina Kolozova reclaims the relevance of categories traditionally rendered "unthinkable" by postmodern feminist philosophies, such as "the real," "the one," "the limit," and "finality," thus critically repositioning poststructuralist feminist philosophy and gender/queer studies.

Poststructuralist (feminist) theory sees the subject as a purely linguistic category, as always already multiple, as always already nonfixed and fluctuating, as limitless discursivity, and as constitutively detached from the instance of the real. This reconceptualization is based on the exclusion of and dichotomous opposition to notions of the real, the one (unity and continuity), and the stable. The non-philosophical reading of postructuralist philosophy engenders new forms of universalisms for global debate and action, expressed in a language the world can understand. It also liberates theory from ideological paralysis, recasting the real as an immediately experienced human condition determined by gender, race, and social and economic circumstance.

"Cut of the Real is polemical and adventurous. It is also innovative in the positions it carves out for itself and in the figures and traditions it employs to carve them. On the one hand, it illuminates the value of [speculative realism and object-oriented ontology] for feminist theory, which in itself is an important theoretical achievement seeing as certain figures associated with these traditions. . . . systematically dismiss feminist theory as unimportant. On the other hand, this work also brings to the fore the ethical and political implications of the realist perspective." - Hypatia

"Kolozova not only provides a valuable critique of the discursive grammar of contemporary continental philosophy, but also points the way beyond critique towards new constructive iterations of the concepts of the One and the Real." - Parrhesia

"This work is an intersection of gender studies, philosophy, culture studies, with pertinent aspects of subjectivity. Anyone interested in any of these fields or connected with the humanities should read this book." - Slavic and East European Journal