20th century
A01=Linda M. G. Zerilli
academic
analysis
Author_Linda M. G. Zerilli
case study
Category=JBSF1
Category=JPA
change
college
contemporary
cultural
culture
discussion
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eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
female
feminism
feminist
freedom
gender
higher ed
judith butler
modern
monique wittig
philosophical
philosophy
political
politics
postmodern
progress
scholarly
sexuality
subjectivity
textbook
theoretical
theorist
theory
university
western
women
Product details
- ISBN 9780226981338
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 03 Oct 2005
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In contemporary feminist theory, the problem of feminine subjectivity persistently appears and reappears as the site that grounds all discussion of feminism. In "Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom," Linda M. G. Zerilli argues that the persistence of this subject-centered frame severely limits feminists' capacity to think imaginatively about the central problem of feminist theory and practice: a politics concerned with freedom. Offering both a discussion of feminism in its postmodern context and a critique of contemporary theory, Zerilli here challenges feminists to move away from a theory-based approach, which focuses on securing or contesting "women" as an analytic category of feminism, to one rooted in political action and judgment. She revisits the democratic problem of exclusion from participation in common affairs and elaborates a freedom-centered feminism as the political practice of beginning anew, world-building, and judging.
In a series of case studies, Zerilli draws on the political thought of Hannah Arendt to articulate a nonsovereign conception of political freedom and to explore a variety of feminist understandings of freedom in the twentieth century, including ones proposed by Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, and the Milan Women's Bookstore Collective. In so doing, Zerilli hopes to retrieve what Arendt called feminism's lost treasure; the original and radical claim to political freedom.
Linda M. G. Zerilli is professor of political science at Northwestern University. She is the author of Signifying Women: Culture and Chaos in Rousseau, Burke, and Mill.
