This bold, beautifully wrought piece of investigative journalism presents the gripping story of a celebrated sexual harassment case brought by two female students against their college schoolmaster. Compelling and intimate, "The First Stone" challenges the blind orthodoxy of today's new breed of feminists and tells of the cost of party-line politics over the more complex matters of human relations.

Introducing the work of three French feminists - Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Michele L Doeuff - "Sexual Subversions" provides access to the work of these writers. In doing so this book raises some key issues of relevance to feminist research, addressing debates around the nature of feminist theory; the relationship between feminist thinking theory; the relationship between feminist thinking and male-dominated areas of knowledge; the strategies appropriate for developing non-patriarchal or woman-centered knowledges. No book on French feminists would be (...) complete without including the contributions of Kristeva and Irigaray. The inclusion of Le Doeuff's work, which brings a different perspective to bear on the question of sexual difference, provides a counterbalance to literary appropriations of French feminism by Anglo-American readerships. Kristeva, Irigaray and Le Doeuff are the focal points of this study, precisely because each highlights the differences of the others, revealing the frameworks to which the others are committed. Nevertheless, while these writers do not present a common political or theoretical position or form a school, each does address the question of women's autonomy from male definition, affirms the sexual specificity of women, seeks out a femininity women can use to question the patriarchal norms and ideals of femininity and rejects the preordained positions patriarchy allots to woman. This book is intended for students and researchers in women's studies, philosophy and feminism. (shrink)

'Appropriation', 'bricolage', 'recording', 'scavenging'—a scenario of image piracy has provided the buzzwords of pop cultural theory for most of the 1980s. while programmes for political action in culture have increasingly taken the form of a romance of buccaneering, the more sedate theoretical disputes about postmodernism have begun to generate a myth that feminists, or even women, have so far said little or nothing about one of the most action-packed debates of the decade. Taking her title from a 1969 film by (...) Nelly Kaplan, Meaghan Morris considers the implications for feminism of a politics which transforms the materials of culture. She also considers the implications for post-modernism and pop theory of recognising the extent to which they already represent a borrowing of feminist thought. In a collection of essays on subjects ranging from blockbuster cinema to art photography, from Foucault to Mary Daly, from Susan Sontag and Jean Baudrillard to Paul Hogan, she argues that a feminist practice of rewriting discourses should emerge from a political critique of the positioning of women, rather than a vague thematics of changing things. (shrink)

In eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice.

This revised edition includes a New Intergalactic Introduction by the Author. Mary Daly's New Intergalactic Introduction explores her process as a Crafty Pirate on the Journey of Writing Gyn/Ecology and reveals the autobiographical context of this "Thunderbolt of Rage" that she first hurled against the patriarchs in 1979 and no hurls again in the Re-Surging Movement of Radical Feminism in the Be-Dazzling Nineties.

"In this densely imbricated volume Derrida pursues his devoted, relentless dismantling of the philosophical tradition, the tradition of Plato, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger--each dealt with in one or more of the essays. There are essays too on linguistics (Saussure, Benveniste, Austin) and on the nature of metaphor ("White Mythology"), the latter with important implications for literary theory. Derrida is fully in control of a dazzling stylistic register in this book--a source of true illumination for those prepared to follow his (...) arduous path. Bass is a superb translator and annotator. His notes on the multilingual allusions and puns are a great service."--Alexander Gelley, Library Journal. (shrink)

This book is representative of the rich diversity of contemporary Australian scholarship in the 1990s. Ann Curthoys begins with an overview of Australian feminisms from 1970 until the present, and poses the question of whether Australian feminist thinking has developed a distinctivecharacter. Her conclusions are complemented by Anne Summers' and Gisela Kaplan's comparisions with developments in the Us and Europe, and by Jill Roe's piece on Australian women and nationalism. Questions raised in Curthoy's discussion of feminist responses to postmodern and (...) postcolonial critiquesare taken up in differing contexts by philosoper Philippa Rothfield, anthropologists Gill Bottomley, Maila Stivens and Vicki Kirby and film theorist Barbara Creed. Historians Jackie Huggins, Patricia Grimshaw and Marilyn Lake offer new perspectives on the complex relationships between AustralianAboriginal women and Australian feminisms. The gender problems associated with economic issues are addressed by trade unionist Carmel Shute, in Gillian Hewitson's critique of neoclassical economics and in Lois Bryson's discussion of women, work and welfare. Difficulties in the implementation ofequal opportunity in the workplace are discussed by Margaret Thornton and Rosemary Pringle. Norma Grieve describes some possible childhood precursors of the 'boys games' that often impede this implementation. Feminist critiques of continuing gender inequities in the law, in politics and inmarriage are provided by Adrian Hose, Marian Simms and Ailsa Burns. Beverley Kingston gives a historical account of the gendered nature of shopping and Stephanie Bunbury discusses the gender positions available in teen movies. The final chapter by Susan Magarey, Susan Sheridan and Lyndall Ryan,concerns the teaching of Women's Studies. This book, whole addressed to all who are interested in women's issue, is particularly relevant for students of Women's Studies and related disciplines. (shrink)

In this anthology, prominent contemporary theorists assess the benefits and dangers of postmodernism for feminist theory. The contributors examine the meaning of postmodernism both as a methodological position and a diagnosis of the times. They consider such issues as the nature of personal and social identity today, the political implications of recent aesthetic trends, and the consequences of changing work and family relations on women's lives. Contributors: Seyla Benhabib, Susan Bordo, Judith Butler, Christine Di Stefano, Jane Flax, Nancy Fraser, Donna (...) Haraway, Sandra Harding, Nancy Hartsock, Andreas Huyssen, Linda J. Nicholson, Elspeth Probyn, Anna Yeatman, Iris Young. (shrink)