MATERIALIST FEMINISM & THE POLITICS OF DISCOURSE

by Hennessy

Materialist Feminism and the Politics of Discourse confronts the impasses in materialist feminist work on rethinking ‘woman’ as a discursively constructed subject. The book looks at the problem of examining critically the social dimensions on which theories of discourse are how such theories understand ‘materiality’; the relation between ‘women’s experience’ and feminist politics, and that between history and discourse. Rosemary Hennessy considers the work of Kristeva, Foucault, Laclau and Mouffe, and argues for a materialist feminist re-articulation of discourse as ideology. Concerns over identity and difference are incorporated into a rewriting of materialist feminism's analysis of women's oppression across capitalist and patriarchal structures. In adapting postmodernist theories in this way, Hennessy develops a project of social change, where feminism, while maintaining its specificity, is necessarily aligned with other emancipatory movements.

Genres: Feminism

Paperback

First published November 10, 1992

Reviews

[Karmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good read from materialist feminist perspective, but also extremely hard one. Unfortunately because of that it's content&message will probably stay limited to high academic circles. I am sure this wasn't the intention of the author but major progress could be done on simplifying sophisticated and extremely academic language that is used in the book.

[Jade Metzger · Rating 3 out of 5]

super hard text. I wish I had more time to dedicate to a more in depth understanding.