Constituting feminist subjects / Kathi Weeks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weeks, Kathi, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminist theory.

Subjectivity.

Subject (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

196 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1998.

Summary:

Kathi Weeks suggests that one of the most important tasks for contemporary feminist theory is to develop theories of the subject that are adequate to feminist politics. Although the 1980s modernist-postmodernist debate put the problem of feminist subjectivity on the agenda, Weeks contends that limited debate now blocks the further development of feminist theory.

Both modernists and postmodernists succeeded in making clear the problems of an already constituted, essentialist subject. What remains as an ongoing project, Weeks contends, is creating a theory of the constitution of subjects to account for the processes of social construction. This book presents one such account. Drawing on a number of different theoretical frameworks, including feminist standpoint theory, socialist feminism, and poststructuralist thought, as well as theories of performativity and self-valorization, the author proposes a nonessentialist feminist subject, a theory of constituting subjects.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [181]-191) and index.

ISBN:

0801434270

0801484472

OCLC:

38144440