Skeptical feminism : activist theory, activist practice / Carolyn Dever.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dever, Carolyn.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminist theory.

Feminism.

Physical Description:

xvii, 219 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2004]

Summary:

In this major work, Carolyn Dever analyzes the politics of feminist theory by looking at its popular, activist, and academic modes, from the liberation movements of the 1970s to gender and queer studies now. Using key moments in the history of modern feminism -- consciousness-raising, best-selling books like Sexual Politics by Kate Millett, and media representations of women's struggle for equality -- Dever outlines heated debates over psychoanalysis, sexuality, and activism, and argues that a fundamental skepticism toward abstraction has been vital to the development of the movement. Powerful, illuminating, and galvanizing, Skeptical Feminism traces the strategies the women's movement has used to make theory matter -- and points toward a new, politically engaged approach to feminist thought.

Contents:

Introduction: feminism, in theory

The future of an ideal: consciousness and the radical vision of women's liberation

The activist unconscious: feminism and psychoanalysis

The feminist body politic: sexuality's domestic incarnation

The feminist abject: death, fiction, and theory

Obstructive behavior: dykes in the mainstream of feminist theory

Conclusion: left justified.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-204) and index.

ISBN:

0816642524

0816642532

OCLC:

52587587