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)

This book offers a systematic attempt to explore the point of convergance between feminist theory and the work of Michel Foucault.

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)

These essays by leading scholars represent the cutting edge of contemporary feminist thought in Australia today. Besides providing comprehensive coverage of key feminist issues in the region, the contributors also look at developments in the US and Europe. Questions are raised in a discussion of feminist responses to postmodern and postcolonial critiques, as well as perspectives on the complex relationships between Australian Aboriginal women and Australian feminists. The work explores gender problems associated with economic issues, the implementation of equal opportunity (...) in the workplace, and gender inequities in the law, in politics, and in marriage. (shrink)

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.

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.