This landmark anthology is the first to engage critically the writings of Ayn Rand from feminist perspectives. The interdisciplinary feminist strategies of re-reading Rand range from the lightness of camp to the darkness of de Sade, from postandrogyny to poststructuralism. A highly charged dialogue on Rand's legacy provides the forum for a reexamination of feminism and its relationship to egoism, individualism, and capitalism. Rand's place in contemporary feminism is assessed through comparisons with other twentieth-century feminists, such as Beauvoir, Wolf, Paglia, Eisler, and Gilligan. What results is as provocative in its implications for Rand's system as it is for feminism.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Too often, Rand is either revered as a prophet or dismissed as a crank. Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand approaches her as a writer and thinker of profound insights and equally profound contradictions, who offered an important and inspiring but flawed and limited vision of life. . . . Such a serious approach can ultimately end Rand s intellectual marginalization. This volume takes a major step in that direction. In the process, it addresses issues of sexual equality and difference that are more relevant than ever today. --Cathy Young, Reason Magazine
About the Author
Mimi Reisel Gladstein is Associate Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas, El Paso. She is the author of The Ayn Rand Companion (Greenwood Press, 1984; forthcoming revised edition, 1999) and The Indestructible Woman in Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck (UMI Research Press, 1986). Chris Matthew Sciabarra is Visiting Scholar in the Department of Politics at NYU and is the author of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical (Penn State, 1995) and Marx, Hayek, and Utopia (SUNY, 1995).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand (Re-Reading the Canon) (Paperback)
I have no idea what book Mats Landstrom read... but it seems to me that he is criticizing Objectivism, and not saying ANYTHING about this volume. This book has absolutely nothing to do with the cult of Objectivism, and everything to do with intelligent discussion and criticism of Rand's ideas. I don't agree with everything in the book, but it is so provocative and so extraordinary in terms of its diversity and scholarship that I can't recommend it more strongly.
19 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastically Interesing Rand Commentary,
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This review is from: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand (Re-Reading the Canon) (Paperback)
Some browsers might be interested in an open letter that Nathaniel Branden <NathanielBranden@compuserve.com> wrote to Chris Sciabarra concerning this book:------------------ Dear Everyone, Now that it's in the bookstores (or available through amazon.com), I urge you to buy and read FEMINIST INTERPRETATIONS OF AYN RAND. The collection is fantastically interesting--and important. (Forget the fact that I am one of the contributors; this is not self-serving.) Naturally, one likes some essays more than others, and some of the pieces are anything but friendly to Rand, and that's all right too, because what matters is that the average intellectual level of the pieces is very high--and the editors are to be saluted for assembling this marvelous collection and for taking another step in closing the gap between AR and the academy. I have no words to convey the rush I experienced while reading this book. Those poor souls at ARI do not understand that this book, criticisms of Rand and all, will do more to advance the cause of Rand's work than all their true-believer praise and idiotic adulation. Have fun. I did. And (if anyone cares) you can quote me. Nathaniel
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Many disciplines brought to bear ...,
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This review is from: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand (Re-Reading the Canon) (Paperback)
This anthology includes a marvelous variety of perspectives on Rand's philosophy as well as her fiction; to criticize this work based on the all-or-nothing behavior of the ARI or on (mis)perceptions of Rand's "egoism" is to fail to engage the actual subjects of the articles themselves. To address some of the arguments leveled in previous reviews:This book does not claim to "promote" Rand, nor are its articles written from the perspective of the true believer. To disagree with Rand's Objectivism does nothing to address the contents of the anthology. As a matter of fact, several of the contributors themselves strongly disagree with and/or disapprove of Rand, for various reasons. The editors do not claim Rand was herself a feminist, although the essays provide a framework for interpreting Rand from a feminist perspective. Further, Rand's self-identification as NOT a feminist does not mean that there is nothing in her work that can be applied to feminism, or from which feminism might benefit. And to claim that the volume is trying to "cash in" on Rand's name is to ignore the entire scope of literary, philosophical, cultural, psychoanalytic, and feminist criticism. The work of the literary critic, for example, involves interpreting a text from a new perspective in order to suggest meanings or structures, to uncover parallels or contradictions, and to struggle with conceptual knots found in the text. One reading will differ from another, opening up different aspects of the text that may or may not have anything to do with the author; once a book has been written, anyone who reads it is free to interpret it as he or she sees fit. For the most part, the contributors here provide in-depth scholarly analyses and plenty of documentation to support their theses. By placing Rand in a sealed box, refusing to allow her work to be interpreted and discovered, and refusing to allow new minds to draw new conclusions from her stated premises, her devoted followers only guarrantee the death of Rand's ideas. For those interested in current Rand scholarship rather than the repitition of Objectivist mantras, this anthology is superb. If you can't bear to hear any new thoughts on Rand, re-read Atlas Shrugged. If you hate Ayn Rand and think her philosophy is the root of all self-serving capitalist American evil, why the heck are you reading this anthology??? Save your cult-baiting for the Down With Objectivism website.
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