Constituting Feminist Subjects

Constituting Feminist Subjects
Author: Kathi Weeks
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1786636042

Kathi Weeks suggests that one of the most important tasks for contemporary feminist theory is to develop theories of the subject that are adequate to feminist politics. Although the 1980s modernist-postmodernist debate put the problem of feminist subjectivity on the agenda, Weeks contends that limited debate now blocks the further development of feminist theory. Both modernists and postmodernists succeeded in making clear the problems of an already constituted, essentialist subject. What remains as an ongoing project, Weeks contends, is creating a theory of the constitution of subjects to account for the processes of social construction. This book presents one such account. Drawing on a number of different theoretical frameworks, including feminist standpoint theory, socialist feminism and poststructuralist thought, as well as theories of peformativity and self-valorisation, the author proposes a nonessential feminist subject, a theory of constituting subjects.

Constituting Feminist Subjects

Constituting Feminist Subjects
Author: Kathi Weeks
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1786636050

A groundbreaking attempt to theorise the feminist subject One of the most important tasks for contemporary feminist theory is to develop a concept of the subject able to meet the challenges facing feminist politics. Although theorists in the 1980s raised the problem of feminist subjectivity, Kathi Weeks contends that the limited nature of that discussion now blocks the further development of feminist theory. While the problems of an already constituted essentialist subject have become patent, what remains as an ongoing project, Weeks contends, is a theory of the constitution of subjects capable of explaining the processes of social construction. This book presents one such account. Drawing on a number of different theoretical frameworks, including feminist standpoint theory, socialist feminism, and poststructuralist thought, as well as theories of peformativity and self-valorization, the author proposes a nonessential feminist subject—a theory of constituting subjects.

The Problem with Work

The Problem with Work
Author: Kathi Weeks
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2011-09-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0822351129

The Problem with Work develops a Marxist feminist critique of the structures and ethics of work, as well as a perspective for imagining a life no longer subordinated to them.

Retrieving Experience

Retrieving Experience
Author: Sonia Kruks
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2018-09-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1501731831

In Retrieving Experience, Sonia Kruks engages critically with the postmodern turn in feminist and social theory. She contends that, although postmodern analyses yield important insights about the place of discourse in constituting subjectivity, they lack the ability to examine how experience often exceeds the limits of discourse. To address this lack and explain why it matters for feminist politics, Kruks retrieves and employs aspects of postwar French existential theory—a tradition that, she argues, postmodernism has obscured by militantly rejecting its own genealogy.Kruks seeks to refocus our attention on the importance for feminism of embodied and "lived" experiences. Through her original readings of Simone de Beauvoir and other existential thinkers—including Sartre, Fanon, and Merleau-Ponty—and her own analyses inspired by their work, Kruks sheds new light on central problems in feminist theory and politics. These include debates about subjectivity and individual agency; questions about recognition and identity politics; and discussion of whether embodied experiences may sometimes facilitate solidarity among groups of different women.

Gender Trouble

Gender Trouble
Author: Judith Butler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2011-09-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1136783245

With intellectual reference points that include Foucault and Freud, Wittig, Kristeva and Irigaray, this is one of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years and is perhaps the essential work of contemporary feminist thought.

Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition

Ecstatic Subjects, Utopia, and Recognition
Author: Patricia J. Huntington
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780791438954

Interweaves elements of Kristevan and Heideggerian thought in order to reconstruct a linguistically embedded, existentially and affectively rich, dialectical model of willed self-regulation.

Feminist Methodology

Feminist Methodology
Author: Caroline Ramazanoglu
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2002-02-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1412933250

`An accessible, clearly explained review of difficult concepts within this arena as well as relevant debates. Its strengths are in outlining possible considerations that need to be taken into account when making methodological choices. It also clearly explains how these choices impact knowledge production. This book would undoubtedly be of considerable use to anyone seeking to understand and get to grips with feminist methodological issues′ - Feminism and Psychology Who would be a feminist now? Contemporary ′political realism′ suggests that the essentials of the battle have already been won, and the current generation of women entering University is used to seeing feminism presented as ′old fashioned′, ′extreme′ and ′unrealistic′. Challenging such assumptions, this important new book argues for the value of empirical investigations of gendered life, and brings together the theoretical, political and practical aspects of feminist methodology. Feminist Methodology - demonstrates how feminist approaches to methodology engage with debates in western philosophy to raise critical questions about knowledge production - shows that feminist methodology has a distinctive place in social research - guides the reader through the terrain of feminist methodology and clarifies how feminists can claim knowledge of gendered social existence - connects abstract issues of theory with issues in fieldwork practice. This timely and accessible book will be an essential resource for students in women′s studies, gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, social anthropology and feminist psychology.

Feminist Research Methodology

Feminist Research Methodology
Author: Maithree Wickramasinghe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 383
Release: 2009-12-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135259577

This book focuses on feminist research methodology, exploring and analysing its constituting methods, theory, ontology, epistemology, ethics and politics, and research issues relating to women, gender and feminism in Sri Lanka. The book examines ways of meaning-making for the political, ideological and ethical purposes of promoting individual and social change, and constructs an example of feminist research praxis. Using this South Asian country as a case study, the author looks at the means by which researchers in this field inhabit, engage with and represent the multiple realities of women and society in Sri Lanka. In analysing what constitutes feminist research methodology in a transitional country, the book links local research practices with Western feminist approaches, taking into account the commonalities, distinctions and specificities of working in a South Asian context. Engaging with and re-conceptualising three traditionally different types of research - women’s studies, gender studies and feminist studies - from a methodological perspective, Feminist Research Methodology provides a framework for researching feminist issues. Applicable at both a local and global level, this original methodological framework will be of value to researchers working in any context.

Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Gender in Late Modernity

Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Gender in Late Modernity
Author: S. Budgeon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2011-10-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230319874

This book critically assessesthird-wave feminist strategies for advancing a feminist 'politics of the self' within the late modern, postfeminist gender order – a context where gender equality has been mainstreamed, feminism has been dismissed, and a neoliberal culture of self-management has become firmly entrenched.

The Invention of Women

The Invention of Women
Author: Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 1997-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1452903255

The "woman question", this book asserts, is a Western one, and not a proper lens for viewing African society. A work that rethinks gender as a Western contruction, The Invention of Women offers a new way of understanding both Yoruban and Western cultures. Oyewumi traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. Her analysis shows the paradoxical nature of two fundamental assumptions of feminist theory: that gender is socially constructed in old Yoruba society, and that social organization was determined by relative age.