Between Women and Generations: Legacies of Dignity (Feminist Constructions) [Paperback]

Drucilla Cornell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2005 | ISBN-10: 0742543706 | ISBN-13: 978-0742543706

Before Drucilla Cornell's mother died, she asked her daughter to write a book, "that would bear witness to the dignity of her death" and that "her bridge class would be able to understand." Shortly thereafter, Cornell's mother, who had degenerative disease, decided to claim her right to die. Forceful, honest, and unsentimental, this is the book that Cornell promised to write.

The fundamental argument of Between Women and Generations is that all women have dignity: we must ensure that they have the conditions under which they can claim that dignity in their own lives; even if they are physically harmed or morally wronged, their dignity cannot be lost.

Cornell uses the personal as a springboard to discuss contemporary issues concerning women today. She engages with the difficult nature of intergenerational relationships between women by writing about her relationship to her own mother. In telling the story of her adoption of Sarita Graciela Kellow Cornell, her Paraguayan daughter, and of her relationship with UNITY, a cooperative of house cleaners in Long island, New York, Cornelll creates a powerful picture of the legacies of dignity between women and generations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cornell, a playwright and Rutgers University political science professor, made a deathbed promise to her mother to write a book that "would bear witness to the dignity of her death and that her bridge class would be able to understand." Cornell's premise in this self-righteous, repetitive and sometimes incoherent treatise, is that "white Anglo feminists" need to respect the dignity of mothers, grandmothers, daughters and the women who work for "us" (thereby assuming, it seems, that her readers are "white Anglo feminists"). Respect allows other women to develop their "imaginary domain" so they can dream and become who they "seek to be." After some musings on her grandmother's career, Cornell detours into feminist psychoanalytic theory, reworking Spivak, Gurewich and Butler's various interventions in feminist and Lacanian debates. Fond of the sport of renaming everything, Cornell replaces "care" with "ethical and affective attunement," "gender" with "the feminine within the imaginary domain" and "dignity" with "the law of psychic separation." After pages of postmodern bravado, Cornell's narrative returns to her adoption of a six-month-old Paraguayan girl. The need for a nanny in New York City raised Cornell's awareness of the underworld of undocumented Latinas, so she interviewed some women from a housecleaners' co-op for the last section of her book. While priding herself on having learned "to listen," Cornell can't resist upstaging her interviewees by offering more dramatic moments from her own working life or by explaining to them how racism works. Cornell's academic friends may be impressed with her effort, but the bridge club will have its doubts. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Before she committed suicide, Cornell's mother, who had a degenerative disease, asked her daughter to write this book as an affirmation of her decision to take her own life and a recognition of her dignity. With uncompromising honesty, Cornell (political science & women's studies, Rutgers; Beyond Accommodation: Ethical Feminism, Deconstruction and the Law) writes of her relationship with her mother, using it as the backdrop to discuss intergenerational relationships between women and to argue that every woman, no matter how physically or emotionally bruised, must preserve her dignity. Although the introduction and first and final chapters trace Cornell's reflections on the influence of the lives and deaths of her mother as well as her grandmother, the book's structure seems fragmented, especially in the middle chapters, where Cornell branches out to discuss feminist theory and include interviews with a Long Island cooperative of women house-cleaners, who assert their dignity individually and collectively. Cornell intended to make this book accessible to nonspecialists, including her mother's bridge club, but the theoretical chapters will be difficult reading for those unfamiliar with the theories of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and several others. For this reason, the book is likely to be confined to academic collections. Patricia A. Beaber, Coll. of New Jersey, Ewing
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742543706
• ISBN-13: 978-0742543706
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,921,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The purest of blasphemers, May 23, 2002

By 

Danielle Jenkins (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Women and Generations: Legacies of Dignity (Hardcover)

"The worst readers are those who proceed like plundering soldiers: they pick up a few things they can use, soil and confuse the rest, and blaspheme the whole."

-Friedrich Nietzsche, Mixed Opinions and Maxims (1879)

I can't help but think a few cold souls who write for trade publications read by publishing industry insiders reviewed Drucilla Cornell's wonderful new book as the purest of blasphemers-- members of the intellectual lightweight brigade.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for every mother, sister, daughter..., May 24, 2002

By 

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg (New Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Women and Generations: Legacies of Dignity (Hardcover)

It's rare to read a book like Cornell's - one that so brilliantly weaves together autobiography, philosophy, and feminism. Cornell's interviews with a NY housecleaner's union are fascinating - every journalist and union organizer should pay close attention to this unique section of the book. Every woman can see a part of herself in Cornell's stories of her life and her relationships with her mother. I've already bought a copy for my sister and mother!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most important work of feminist theory and autobiography, May 24, 2002

By 

Danielle Jenkins (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Women and Generations: Legacies of Dignity (Hardcover)

This is the most important and brilliant work of feminist theory I have ever read. Drucilla Cornell, known to the academic world as professor of Political Science, Women's Studies, and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University, interweaves psychoanalysis, political philosophy, postcolonial literature, aesthetic theory, and real world feminst political analysis like no one else writing today.

Some have called her the most brilliant, passionate, and provocative feminist in the United States. What can I say? Believe them.