Feminism and Power: The Need for Critical Theory (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781498515405)

Vendor: Mary Caputi
Product type: Books
Format: Paperback
$58.95
$58.95
$58.95
Subtotal: $58.95
WR Book House

Feminism and Power: The Need for Critical Theory

$58.95

Feminism and Power: The Need for Critical Theory

$58.95
Format: Paperback
Description
Description
x

Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory is a six-chapter manuscript which offers an important critique of "power feminism." The latter, having produced such spinoffs as "grrrl power," "choice," "babe," "lipstick," and "stiletto" feminisms, encourages women to be strong, self-sufficient, feisty, and independent. While I have no argument with much of that tough-minded ideal, I ask whether this "brave new girl" doesn't too readily acquiesce in a neo-liberal ideology whose underlying tenets derive from American rugged individualism. At its worst, this strain within Third Wave feminism contains no critique of capitalism, no distance on neoliberal theory, no effort to address the injustices contained in globalization's asymmetries and the industrialized North's exploitation of developing countries.

Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory therefore argues that the critical theories of Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida have much to offer feminism, and a feminist understanding of female empowerment. Its pages rely on Adorno's assertion that it is only by allowing the sufferer to speak that we can unveil social truth rather than be duped by the bravado of victory culture. Similarly, it demonstrates how Derrida's insistence on the trace, as well as the asymmetries of friendship and hospitality, lead feminism away from the perils of contented triumphalism. The book promotes listening as a paradigmatic feminist gesture, rather than always speaking up and out.

Author: Mary Caputi
ISBN-10: 1498515401
ISBN-13: 9781498515405
Publisher: Lexington Books
Language: English
Published: 03/25/2015
Pages: 218
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.10w x 0.60d
By Mary Caputi
By Mary Caputi
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Mary Caputi is professor of political theory at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where she has taught since 1995. Her research interests are in the areas of contemporary political thought, feminism, critical theory, postcolonial scholarship, and cultural studies. Her books include A Kinder, Gentler America: Melancholia and the Mythical 1950s (University of Minnesota Press, 2005) and Voluptuous Yearnings: A Feminist Theory of the Obscene (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1994). She is also the author of numerous articles. In addition to the current book project addressing empowerment in Third Wave feminism, she is also a co-editor and contributor to a forthcoming volume, Derrida and the Future of the Liberal Arts (Continuum, 2013), that analyzes the philosophy of Jacques Derrida in light of the crisis in higher education. In 2009, Professor Caputi spent a sabbatical in Venice, Italy, where she taught a course at the University of Venice, Ca' Foscari. In 2010, she received the Outstanding Professor Award from CSULB.

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