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Feminist Aesthetics and the Politics of Modernism

Ewa Plonowska Ziarek

This book articulates a feminist aesthetics, focusing on the struggle for freedom in women's literary and political modernism and on the devastating impact of racist violence and sexism. It examines ... More

This book articulates a feminist aesthetics, focusing on the struggle for freedom in women's literary and political modernism and on the devastating impact of racist violence and sexism. It examines the contradiction between women's transformative literary and political practices and the oppressive realities of racist violence and sexism, and situates these tensions within the entrenched opposition between revolt and melancholia in studies of modernity and within the friction between material injuries and experimental aesthetic forms. The book's political and aesthetic investigations concern the exclusion and destruction of women in politics and literary production and the transformation of this oppression into the inaugural possibilities of writing and action. The study combines an in-depth engagement with philosophical aesthetics, especially the work of Theodor W. Adorno, and with women's literary modernism, particularly the writing of Virginia Woolf and Nella Larsen. It also incorporates feminist theories on the politics of race and gender. By bringing seemingly apolitical, gender-neutral debates about modernism's experimental forms together with an analysis of violence and destroyed materialities, the book challenges both the anti-aesthetic subordination of modern literature to political ends and the appreciation of art's emancipatory potential at the expense of feminist and anti-racist political struggles.Less

Foucault's Futures: A Critique of Reproductive Reason

Penelope Deutscher

In Foucault's Futures, Penelope Deutscher reconsiders the role of procreation in Foucault's thought, especially its proximity to risk, mortality, and death. She brings together his work on sexuality ... More

In Foucault's Futures, Penelope Deutscher reconsiders the role of procreation in Foucault's thought, especially its proximity to risk, mortality, and death. She brings together his work on sexuality and biopolitics to challenge our understanding of the politicization of reproduction. By analyzing Foucault's contribution to the politics of maternity and its influence on the work of thinkers such as Roberto Esposito, Giorgio Agamben, and Judith Butler, Deutscher provides new insights into the conflicted political status of reproductive conduct and what it means for feminism and critical theory.Less

Knock Me Up, Knock Me Down: Images of Pregnancy in Hollywood Films

Kelly Oliver

No longer is pregnancy a repulsive or shameful condition in Hollywood films, but an attractive attribute, often enhancing the romantic or comedic storyline of a female character. This book ... More

No longer is pregnancy a repulsive or shameful condition in Hollywood films, but an attractive attribute, often enhancing the romantic or comedic storyline of a female character. This book investigates this curious shift and its reflection of changing attitudes toward women's roles in reproduction and the family. Not all representations signify progress. The text finds that in many pregnancy films, our anxieties over modern reproductive practices and technologies are made manifest, and in some cases perpetuate conventions curtailing women's freedom. Reading such films as Where the Heart Is (2000), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Palindromes (2004), Saved! (2004), Quinceanera (2006), Children of Men (2006), Knocked Up (2007), Juno (2007), Baby Mama (2008), Away We Go (2009), Precious (2009), The Back-up Plan (2010), Due Date (2010), and Twilight: Breaking Dawn (2011), the book investigates pregnancy as a vehicle for romance, a political issue of choice, a representation of the hosting of others, a prism for fears of miscegenation, and a screen for modern technological anxieties.Less

There Are Two Sexes: Essays in Feminology

Antoinette Fouque

Catherine Porter (ed.)

Antoinette Fouque cofounded the Mouvement de Lib ération des Femmes (MLF) in France in 1968 and spearheaded its celebrated Psychanalyse et Politique, a research group that informed the cultural and ... More

Antoinette Fouque cofounded the Mouvement de Lib ération des Femmes (MLF) in France in 1968 and spearheaded its celebrated Psychanalyse et Politique, a research group that informed the cultural and intellectual heart of French feminism. Rather than reject Sigmund Freud's discoveries on the pretext of their phallocentrism, Fouque sought to enrich his thought by more clearly defining the difference between the sexes and affirming the existence of a female libido. By recognizing women's contribution to humanity, Fouque hoped “uterus envy,” which she saw as the mainspring of misogyny, could finally give way to gratitude and by associating procreation with women's liberation she advanced the goal of a parity-based society in which men and women could write a new human contract. This book touches on issues in history and biography, politics, and psychoanalysis. The chapters recount experiences running the first women's publishing house in Europe; supporting women under threat, such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Taslima Nasrin, and Nawal El Saadaoui; and serving as deputy in the European Parliament. The book discusses the ongoing development of feminology, and while it celebrates the progress women have made over the past four decades, it also warns against the trends of counterliberation: the feminization of poverty, the persistence of sexual violence, and the rise of religious fundamentalism.Less