The Man Question: Visions of Subjectivity in Feminist Theory / Edition 1

by Kathy E. Ferguson

Overview

Turning on its head that familiar "woman question," this innovative work poses masculinity as a problem that requires explanation. Ferguson rebukes the sense of coherence contained in patriarchal theory in the name of a voice that both calls upon and challenges the category woman. Stepping back from the opposition of male and female, she artfully loosens the hold of gender on life and meaning, creating and at the same time deconstructing a women's point of view. Posing the "man question" provides a way not only to view male power and female subordination but also to valorize and problematize women's experiences, thus destabilizing conventional notions of man and woman.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520079915
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/03/1993
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kathy E. Ferguson is Associate Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of Hawai'i, and author of The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy and Self, Society and Womankind: The Dialectic of Liberation.

Table of Contents

Preface 
Acknowledgments 

1. Interpretation and Genealogy in Feminism 
Ontologies and Subjectivities 
Languages, Histories, Politics 
Ironic Convergences and Common Front Politics 

2. Male-Ordered Subjectivity 
Identity and Desire in Hegel 
Feminist Alternatives to the Hegelian Subject 

3· Praxis Feminism 
Creating Praxis Feminism 
Essentialism? 
Ironic Interventions 

4· Cosmic Feminism 
Creating Cosmic Feminism 
Kitsch, Appropriation, and Irony 

5· Linguistic Feminism 
Creating Linguistic Feminism 
Kitsch, Irony, and the Traffic In Between 

6. Mobile Subjectivities
Tragic Choices, Happy Endings, or Ironic Encounters
Class Encounters of a Third Kind
Ironic Convergences, Coalition Politics, and Kitsch

Notes
Bibliography
Index