Feminism and Postmodernism

by Ferguson, Margaret; Wicke, Jennifer

• ISBN13: 9780822314882
• ISBN10: 0822314886
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-02-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

This collection of essays explores the significant agreements and tensions between contemporary feminist and postmodern theories and practices. Having brought enormous changes to conceptions of the body, identity, and the media, postmodernity compels the rethinking of many feminist categories, including female experience, the self, and the notion that "the personal is political." Feminist analysis has been equally important, though not always equally acknowledged, as a force within postmodernism. Feminist writings on subjectivity, master narratives, and the socioeconomic underpinnings of the master narrative of theory itself have been particularly influential. This volume traces the crossings and mutual interrogations of these two traditions into the arenas of cultural production, legal discourse, and philosophical thought. Multidisciplinary and international in their collective focus, the essays range from a study of Madonna as an Italian American woman who is revising the cultural meanings of an ethnic feminism to a unique interview with Mairead Keane, the national head of the Womenrs"s Department of the Irish political party Sinn Fein. Turning the prism of postmodern feminism onto such diverse cultural objects as literary and literary critical texts, contemporary film, and music, these essays intervene in debates regarding technology, sexuality, and politics. Challenging modern feminisms to articulate their inescapable relation to postmodern society, this expanded edition of a special issue ofboundary 2also explores ways in which feminism can work as the cutting edge of a global postmodernism.Contributors. Salwa Bakr, Claire Detels, Margaret Ferguson, Carla Freccero, Marjorie Garber, Barbara Harlow, Laura E. Lyons, Anne McClintock, Toril Moi, Linda Nicholson, Mary Poovey, Andrew Ross, David Simpson, Kathyrn Bond Stockton, Jennifer Wicke

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Feminism and Postmodernism or The Way We Live Now

Postmodern Identities and the Politics of the (Legal) Subject

Feminism and Postmodernism- Another View

Feminisms and Feminizations in the Postmodern

Feminism and the Politics of Postmodernism

Ambiguity and Alienation in The Second Sex

Screwing the System: Sexwork, Race, and the Law

Bodies and God: Poststructuarlist Feminists Return to the Fold of Spiritual Materialism

"In the Golden Chariot Things Will Be Better"

Our Lady of MTV: Madonna's "Like a Prayer"

Soft Boundaries and Relatedness: Paradigm for a Postmodern Feminist Musical Aesthetics

Wet, Dark, and Low, Eco-Man Evolves from Eco-Woman

"Greatness": Philology and the Politics of Mimesis

"At the End of the Day": An Interview with Mairead Keane, National Head of Sinn Fein Women's Department

Index

Contributors

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