Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand (Re-Reading the Canon) (Hardcover)

~ Mimi Reisel Gladstein (Editor), Chris Matthew Sciabarra (Editor)
Key Phrases: inferior sex, full context, turbulent harmony, New York, Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This anthology seeks to critically engage 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 postandrogeny to poststructuralism. The dialogue on Rand's legacy provides the forum for a re-examination of feminism and its relationship to egoism, individualism and capitalism, and Rand's place in contemporary feminism is assessed through comparisons with other 20th-century feminists, such as Beauvoir, Wolf, Paglia, Eisler, and Gilligan. Contributors to this volume include Barbara Branden, Susan Love Brown, Thomas Gramstad, Melissa Jane Hardie, Wendy McElroy, Karen Michalson, Camille Paglia and Judith Wilt.

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). --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 413 pages
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press; First Edition edition (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0271018305
• ISBN-13: 978-0271018300
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,802,448 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, March 11, 1999

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 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastically Interesing Rand Commentary, February 11, 1999

By	Joshua Zader "Joshua Zader" (Carson City, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 <[e-mail]> 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 ..., February 14, 2001

By	T. Diefenbach "grad student" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.