Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly (Re-Reading the Canon) [Paperback]

Sarah Lucia Hoagland (Author, Editor), Marilyn Frye (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000 | Series: Re-Reading the Canon

This open-ended anthology is a journey into the very canon that Mary Daly has argued to be patriarchal and demeaning to women. This volume deauthorizes the official canon of Western philosophy and disrupts a related story told by some feminists who claim that Daly's work is unworthy of re-reading because it contains fatal errors. The editors and contributors attempt to prove that Mary Daly is located in the Western intellectual tradition. Daly may be highly critical of conventional Western epistemological and theological traditions, but she nevertheless appropriates themes out-of-context for the building of her own systematic philosophy.The following are just a few of the many themes explored in this volume: the question of subjectivity understood as an ongoing process of be-coming the ambiguity of the need for feminists of colonial nations to speak out about violence against women in other parts of the world while that speaking carries with it the stamp of a colonial location the territoriality of lesbian and women s space the theological dimensions of twentieth-century Western philosophy.Contributors are Wanda Warren Berry, Purushottama Bilimoria, Debra Campbell, Molly Dragiewicz, Fran Gray, Amber L. Katherine, AnaLouise Keating, Anne Marie Korte, María Lugones, Geraldine Moane, Sheilagh A. Mogford, Laurel C. Schneider, Renuka Sharma, and Marja Suhonen.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The editors introduction is a luscious piece of feminist scholarship that mirrors the individual authors attention to Mary Daly's call for creating oneself through appropriation of language and use of metaphor. Further, Hoagland and Frye's introduction gives readers an insightful, insider's glimpse into feminism's internal debate about diversity and inclusivity. --S. Martinelli-Fernandez, Choice

The anthology reflects the depth, breadth, and process of Daly's writings, demonstrating that her thinking continues to transform and spiral in novel ways. In this way its very form functions as a counter argument to the critiques of Daly as an essentialist. Hoagland and Frye have put together an excellent text that every college library and women s studies office should own. --Helene Tallon Russell, Religious Studies Review

Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly provides a thought-provoking collection of writings on one of the most influential and controversial radical feminist thinkers. The contributors to this anthology discuss a wide range of topics, considering Daly as theologian, linguist, ontologist, (meta)ethicist, and epistemologist. --Carol Quinn, Philosophy in Review

About the Author

Sarah Lucia Hoagland is Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at Northeastern Illinois University. Marilyn Frye is Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271020199
• ISBN-13: 978-0271020198
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,327,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why We Need to Re-Read Mary Daly, April 19, 2001

By 

Alison Bailey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly (Re-Reading the Canon) (Hardcover)

Sarah Hoagland and Marilyn Frye's new anthology, Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly is a self-proclaimed "open-ended journey" into Daly's philosophy and the very patriarchal canon she resists. Like some of the earlier Re-reading the Canon volumes, which situate women thinkers into a canon crafted to exclude them, this volume (with purposeful irony) places Daly "into the very canon which she herself has argued is a branch of patriarchal religion grounded in the dismemberment of the Goddess, and which her work is dedicated to undermining by means of animating women's possibilities."(2) In the same breath this collection places Daly in a rapidly emerging feminist canon that continues to distance itself from the radical feminism of the 1960s-70s. Viewing Radical Feminism as framework in progress, and not as an eight year experiment that ultimately failed, reveals uncharted territories and new possibilities for projects grounded in Daly's work. This collection takes the first steps into this newly imagined territory. Whether Daly's work changed/saved your life-- or, like me, you never read her closely because the word on the academic streets was that she had nothing serious to offer-this volume will forever change the way you think about one of the most prolific feminist writers of our time. For Daly scholars this anthology is filled with suggestions for new research projects. Daly skeptics will find unexpected interest in the daring and creative applications of her ideas to third wave feminist conversations. In any case, the collection brings together enough innovative re-readings of Daly's work to safely predict a renewed interest in her systematic philosophy, if not a renaissance in Daly scholarship. Dr. Alison Bailey Illinois State University

6 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ugh., July 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly (Re-Reading the Canon) (Hardcover)

People are always condemning the Dalyites for their "separatism," but my feeling is that they couldn't be separate enough. Well, maybe on Neptune. The far side.