Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity
Argues that Foucault's work employs a conception of subjectivity that is well-suited for feminist theory and politics.
Addressing central questions in the debate about Foucault's usefulness for politics, including his rejection of universal norms, his conception of power and power-knowledge, his seemingly contradictory position on subjectivity and his resistance to using identity as a political category, McLaren argues that Foucault employs a conception of embodied subjectivity that is well-suited for feminism. She applies Foucault's notion of practices of the self to contemporary feminist practices, such as consciousness-raising and autobiography, and concludes that the connection between self-transformation and social transformation that Foucault theorizes as the connection between subjectivity and institutional and social norms is crucial for contemporary feminist theory and politics.
Margaret A. McLaren is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Coordinator of Women's Studies at Rollins College.