Feminist Theory in Pursuit of the Public Women and the "Re-Privatization" of Labor

by Goodman, Robin Truth

• ISBN13: 9780230616400
• ISBN10: 0230616402
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Not long ago, feminist theory was at the center of vibrant scholarly and political debates that bridged the humanities with the social and natural sciences while contributing critically important theoretical perspectives into social movements. Though feminist theory's importance seems to be waning, Feminist Theory in Pursuit of the Public argues that feminist concerns are more pressing now than ever. The critical language and arguments that feminist theory developed offer a response to the destruction of public life happening on a global scale, through the rise of neoliberalism, the privatization of labor, and the escalation of militarism. Goodman enters critical debates by linking the Frankfurt School's idea of public life to the work on political agency by celebrated feminist thinkers like Toril Moi, Judith Butler, and Donna Haraway. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Robin Truth Goodman is an Associate Professor of English at Florida State University. Her publications include: Policing Narratives and the State of Terror (2009); World, Class, Women: Global Literature, Education, and Feminism (2004); Strange Love: Or, How We Learn To Stop Worrying And Love the Market (co-written with Kenneth J. Saltman, 2002); and Infertilities: Exploring Fictions of Barren Bodies (2001).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Feminism and the Retreat from the Public	p. 15
The Habermasian Public Sphere: Women's Work within the Critique of Instrumental Reason	p. 51
Beirut Fragments: The Crumbling Public Sphere, Language Privatization, and the "Re-Privatization" of Women's Work	p. 87
Adorno Faces Feminism: Interiority, or Modern Power and the Liquidation of Private Life	p. 125
Baghdad Burning: Cyborg Meets the Negative	p. 159
Conclusion	p. 193
Notes	p. 199
Works Cited	p. 241
Index	p. 253
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