Cressida J. Heyes deftly elucidates and then travels beyond the essentialism debates to rescue the efficacy of feminist theory for activism and research. She offers a genealogy of essentialism, specifically as it applies to the work of Carol Gilligan and Catharine MacKinnon, and employs a Wittgensteinian approach to feminism that understands similarities between women as family resemblances and political decisions about inclusion and exclusion as contextual and purposive. Line Drawings argues for an anti-essentialist method that enables generalizing feminist discourse but insists on paying close attention to the operations of power in constructing claims about women. This is a fresh and vitally important step past stymied debate on what is arguably the most pressing issue in cross-disciplinary feminist theory.
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Book Description
At the heart of feminist theory lies the seemingly intractable issue of essentialism. Feminism has thus far failed to transcend critiques of essentialism, and currently offers only two inadequate positions against it. One response reifies the category "women," representing the experience of oppression of privileged women as archetypal for feminism, and the other denies the category because it unjustly overgeneralizes, thus undercutting the possibility of a robust theory of gender oppression. To spur anti-essentialist methods and practice around such issues as sexual violence, feminist theory crucially needs a constructive and politically powerful strategy for defining women.
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"Doing" Feminist Theory,
By Liz "L." (PA, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Line Drawings: Defining Women Through Feminist Practice (Paperback)
Dr. Heyes writes lucidly of coming to terms with the conflict between traditional "pure" philosopical theorizing (i.e. Western, linear, exclusive) and "rough" feminist practice (universal, nonlinear, inclusive.) If you like Wittgenstein, you may be shocked at where she has taken his ideas!Graduate-level reading.
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First Sentence:
This book stands at the confluence of several trends in feminist theory and my own experience of political organizing and feminist practice. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Line Drawings, United States, Philosophical Investigations, Carol Gilligan, Inessential Woman, Elizabeth Spelman, Feminist Voice, Listener's Guide, North America New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
This book stands at the confluence of several trends in feminist theory and my own experience of political organizing and feminist practice. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Line Drawings, United States, Philosophical Investigations, Carol Gilligan, Inessential Woman, Elizabeth Spelman, Feminist Voice, Listener's Guide, North America New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
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6
books
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- Philosophical Investigations (3rd Edition) by Ludwig Wittgenstein on 10 pages
- Inessential Woman by Elizabeth V. Spelman on 9 pages
- In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development by Carol Gilligan on 5 pages
- Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (Thinking Gender) by Seyla Benhabib on 4 pages
- The Essential Difference (Books from differences) by Naomi Schor on 4 pages
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- Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein (Re-Reading the Canon Series) by Naomi Scheman on 5 pages
- The Grammar of Politics: Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy by Cressida J. Heyes in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Private Selves, Public Identities: Reconsidering Identity Politics by Susan J. Hekman on page 35, and Back Matter
- Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History (Religion and Postmodernism) by Amy Hollywood in Back Matter
- Political Exclusion and Domination: NOMOS XLVI by Melissa Williams on page 227
See all 6 books citing this book
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