Feminism and Postmodernism
Summary
TLDRThe video script discusses the intricate relationship between postmodernism and feminism, highlighting their ambivalent connection. It emphasizes the seminal work of Judith Butler, who introduced the concept of gender as a discursive construct and performance, rather than a biological fact. The lecture explores postmodern feminism's critique of universalizing concepts and its focus on language, discourse, and power dynamics. It contrasts this perspective with other feminist theories such as radical, Marxist, and liberal feminism, each with its own approach to understanding and addressing gender inequality. The script also examines the dialogue between postmodernism and feminism, their shared opposition to grand narratives, and the challenges they pose to each other's principles. Key theorists like Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva, and the concept of 'cyborg' by Donna Haraway are mentioned as influential to the discourse. The summary underscores the importance of understanding these theories not in isolation but in the context of their dynamic interaction with one another.
Takeaways
- 📚 The lecture discusses the complex relationship between feminism and postmodernism, highlighting both their points of convergence and divergence.
- 🎭 Postmodern feminism is marked by a shift from structuralism towards post-structuralism, emphasizing the idea of gender as a discursive construct and performance rather than a biological fact, as proposed by Judith Butler.
- 👥 Postmodern feminism challenges the notion of a universal female identity and rejects identitarian terms like 'queer' and 'transgender', advocating for attention to differences among women.
- 🔍 It critiques previous feminist theories for their false universality, pointing out the use of categories like race, class, and sexual orientation that don't apply universally to all women.
- 🌐 Postmodern feminism is distinguished from other feminist theories such as radical, Marxist, and liberal feminism, focusing more on language, discourse, power, and knowledge rather than on political and social reforms.
- 🤝 The connection between postmodernism and feminism is seen as complementary due to their shared opposition to grand narratives and Enlightenment ideals, as well as their focus on dismantling traditional representations of women.
- 🚫 However, there are contradictions, such as postmodernism's lack of a clear strategy for resistance and its political ambivalence, which can complicate its alignment with feminism's political stance.
- 👩🏫 Key proponents of postmodern feminism include Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva, and Judith Butler, who are concerned with the role of language and discourse in shaping gender and power dynamics.
- 📖 The script mentions several influential works and authors that have contributed to postmodern feminist thought, such as Linda Nicholson's 'Feminism/Postmodernism' and Linda Hutcheon's various contributions.
- 🤖 Donna Haraway's concept of the 'cyborg' is highlighted as a significant intervention, offering a new way to envision feminism in the context of technology and challenging traditional dualisms.
- 🔄 Sara Ahmed's work is noted for advocating a reevaluation of the relationship between feminism and postmodernism, encouraging feminism to question and engage with postmodernism rather than being dictated by it.
Q & A
What is the relationship between feminism and postmodernism as discussed in the lecture?
-The lecture suggests that feminism and postmodernism have an ambivalent relationship. They sometimes contradict each other but can also act as complementary forces. Postmodernism challenges grand narratives and essentializing ideas, which aligns with feminism's goal of deconstructing traditional gender roles and identities.
Who is considered a key figure in the development of postmodern feminism?
-Judith Butler is considered a key figure in the development of postmodern feminism, with her work on performativity and the concept of gender as a discursive construction rather than a biological fact.
What is the significance of Judith Butler's idea of 'performativity' in the context of gender?
-Judith Butler's idea of 'performativity' challenges the traditional view of gender as a fixed biological reality. Instead, she argues that gender is something that is performed and constructed through language and social norms, emphasizing the fluidity and changeability of gender identities.
How does postmodern feminism differ from other feminist theories such as radical feminism, Marxist feminism, and liberal feminism?
-Postmodern feminism differs from other feminist theories in its focus on language, discourse, and the relationship between power and knowledge rather than on politics and opportunities. It critiques the universalizing tendencies of other feminist theories and emphasizes the importance of recognizing differences among women.
What is the term 'difference' in the context of postmodern feminism?
-In postmodern feminism, the term 'difference' is central and refers to the recognition and importance of acknowledging the diverse experiences and identities of women, moving away from the idea of a single, homogeneous group of women.
What is the concept of 'historiographic metafiction' as discussed by Linda Hutcheon?
-Historiographic metafiction, a term coined by Linda Hutcheon, refers to literary texts that assert an interpretation of the past while also being intensely self-reflexive. These texts critically engage with their own version of truth, acknowledging it as partial, biased, and incomplete.
How does Linda Hutcheon challenge the Marxist critique of postmodernism?
-Linda Hutcheon challenges the Marxist critique of postmodernism by arguing that postmodern modalities aid the process of criticism rather than suspending it. She uses the example of Terry Eagleton's novel 'Saints and Scholars' to illustrate that postmodern works can rethink history and offer political critique.
What is the significance of Donna Haraway's 'Cyborg Manifesto' in the context of postmodern feminism?
-Donna Haraway's 'Cyborg Manifesto' is significant because it proposes a new kind of feminism that transcends traditional boundaries between human and machine, challenging hierarchical dualisms. The cyborg figure represents a world without clear distinctions, offering new possibilities for feminist theory and practice in the digital age.
Why does Sara Ahmed argue that feminism should ask questions of postmodernism?
-Sara Ahmed argues that feminism should ask questions of postmodernism because postmodernism has been allowed to dictate certain feminist debates. She believes that feminism should challenge this by interrogating postmodernism's construction in relation to rights, ethics, subjectivity, authorship, metafiction, and film.
How does the lecture suggest postmodern feminism can contribute to our understanding of literature?
-The lecture suggests that postmodern feminism can contribute to our understanding of literature by offering a critical lens through which to examine the representation of women, the construction of gender identities, and the relationship between language and social norms. It encourages a more nuanced and complex reading of literary texts.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Feminism and Postmodernism
The lecture introduces the complex relationship between feminism and postmodernism, suggesting an ambivalent connection where they both contradict and complement each other. It highlights Judith Butler's work as a turning point, emphasizing the concept of 'performativity' and viewing gender as a discursive construct rather than a biological fact. Postmodern feminism challenges the idea of a universal female identity and critiques essentializing concepts like 'queer' and 'transgender'. The lecture also differentiates postmodern feminism from other feminist theories such as radical, Marxist, and liberal feminism, noting its focus on language, discourse, power, and knowledge rather than direct political action.
🔍 Exploring the Affinities and Contradictions between Feminism and Postmodernism
This section delves into the perceived alliance between postmodernism and feminism, discussing their shared opposition to grand narratives and traditional representations of women. It examines Linda Nicholson's work questioning whether postmodernism is a natural ally to feminism, given its opposition to normative masculinity. The summary acknowledges the complementary forces of both movements but also points out the contradictions. It references the views of Linda Hutcheon and Chris Weedon, who argue that postmodernism lacks a clear strategy for resistance and is politically ambivalent, while Patricia Waugh and Nancy Hartsock raise concerns about postmodernism's impact on women's agency and subjecthood.
🎨 Linda Hutcheon's Perspective on Postmodernism and Feminism
The paragraph presents Linda Hutcheon's unique perspective on the intersection of postmodernism and feminism. It discusses her critique of Marxist views, particularly those of Fredric Jameson and Terry Eagleton, who argue that postmodernism lacks depth and political engagement. Hutcheon counters this by illustrating how postmodern works, such as Eagleton's 'Saints and Scholars,' can engage with history in a meaningful way. She introduces the term 'historiographic metafiction' to describe literature that reinterprets history while being self-reflexively aware of its own biases and limitations, offering a more nuanced approach to understanding the past.
📚 Postmodern Feminist Interventions and Theoretical Developments
This section overviews significant feminist interventions in postmodern thought, including Patricia Waugh's 'Feminine Fictions,' which critiques the exclusion of women from postmodern discourse, and Donna Haraway's 'A Cyborg Manifesto,' which proposes a new feminist perspective in the age of technology and blurred boundaries between human, animal, and machine. It also touches on the contributions of other theorists like Mary Jacobus, Catherine Belsey, and Craig Owens, emphasizing the importance of integrating feminist practices with postmodern concerns to better understand culture and power dynamics.
🤖 The Cyborg as a Symbol of Postmodern Feminism
The paragraph focuses on Donna Haraway's concept of the cyborg as a symbol of postmodern feminism. It discusses how the cyborg, a being that is both human and machine, challenges traditional dualistic hierarchies and boundaries. Haraway uses the cyborg as a metaphor to envision a world free from hierarchical dualisms and to suggest that postmodern feminism can benefit from such a boundary-defying figure. The summary also mentions Haraway's influential works that have significantly contributed to feminist theory in the context of technology and digital age.
🌟 Challenging Conventional Views: Sara Ahmed's Perspective on Feminism and Postmodernism
The final paragraph discusses Sara Ahmed's challenge to conventional ways of theorizing the relationship between feminism and postmodernism. Ahmed argues that postmodernism has been allowed to dictate certain feminist debates and that feminism should instead question postmodernism. She proposes examining postmodernism's construction in relation to various aspects such as rights, ethics, subjectivity, authorship, metafiction, and film. The summary emphasizes the importance of understanding the differing political positions within discussions of feminism and postmodernism and the need for continuous dialogue between these movements.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Postmodernism
💡Feminism
💡Postmodern Feminism
💡Performativity
💡Structuralism
💡Post-Structuralism
💡Essentialism
💡Identity Politics
💡Difference
💡Historiographic Metafiction
💡Cyborg
Highlights
The lecture explores the ambivalent relationship between feminism and postmodernism, discussing their contradictions and complementary aspects.
Postmodern feminism is marked by Judith Butler's work, proposing gender as a discursive construction and performance rather than a biological fact.
The concept of performativity rejects dualistic views of gender and emphasizes the fluidity and construction of gender roles.
Postmodern feminism challenges identitarian terms like 'queer' and 'transgender', and opposes essentializing and universalizing ideas about women.
Postmodern feminism criticizes previous feminist theories for their false universality and calls for attention to differences among women.
The term 'difference' is central to postmodern feminism, which focuses on language, discourse, power, and knowledge.
Postmodern feminism differs from radical, Marxist, and liberal feminism in its approach to understanding and addressing oppression.
Feminist theory is distinguished from feminism as a political stance, with the former being a philosophical and analytical approach.
Feminism and postmodernism are often seen as natural allies due to their shared opposition to normative masculinity and grand narratives.
Linda Nicholson's work questions whether postmodernism is a natural ally of feminism, given its opposition to enlightenment ideals.
Postmodern feminism is characterized by its critique of essentialist masculinist Enlightenment thought.
The lecture highlights the importance of distinguishing between postmodernism as a movement and postmodernist theories.
Feminist theory and postmodernism share similarities in their rejection of grand narratives and their focus on structures of oppression.
Contradictions between postmodernism and feminism are discussed, such as postmodernism's lack of strategies for feminist resistance.
Patricia Waugh critiques postmodernism for its lack of attention to the 'death of the author' concept during a time when women were seeking authorial voices.
Nancy Hartsock's work questions postmodernism's move away from history and subjectivity, which feminism finds problematic.
Linda Hutcheon's work is highlighted for finding a balance between postmodernism and feminism, especially in literary criticism.
Hutcheon uses 'historiographic metafiction' to describe literature that reinterprets history while acknowledging its own biases.
Patricia Waugh's 'Feminine Fictions' is noted for addressing the exclusion of women writers in postmodern discourse.
Donna Haraway's 'Cyborg Manifesto' is highlighted for proposing a new kind of feminism in the age of technology and blurred boundaries.
Sara Med's 'Differences that Matter' challenges conventional ways of theorizing the relationship between feminism and postmodernism.
The lecture concludes by emphasizing the importance of dialogue between postmodernism and other movements like Marxism and feminism.
Transcripts
Hello everyone, I am happy to welcome you yet again to another session of the NPTEL
course postmodernism and literature. Today's lecture is titled feminism and postmodernism,
and this needs to be seen in continuation with our discussions of Marxism and postmodernism.
And how we illustrated, how Marxism needs to be seen in radical opposition and as a
contrast to how postmodernist theory is work. And as a corollary to our understanding
of Marxism and postmodernism, feminism and postmodernism has a more ambivalent
relationship. There are occasions when they contradict each other, but it also exists as
two kinds of a complementary forces at work both in different paradigms all together. And we begin
looking at the implications of postmodern feminism and what we understand by that.
It would be appropriate to say that the inaugural moment of a postmodern feminism
could be located with the work of Judith Butler, and this is something we have already taken a
look at in one of the earlier sessions. it is also a turning point from structuralism
towards the post structuralism its marked by linguistic turn as we have already noted.
And Judith Butler proposed the idea of performativity and a new theory of gender
arguing that gender needs to be seen as discursive construction, and a performance rather than a
biological fact. And this sort of a concept also rejected the dualistic view of gender
and also pointed towards the interoperability, of the body from language and social norms.
For example when we talk about the woman as a linguistic construct it needs to be kept in mind
that we focus is on the becoming rather than the being. In that sense “One is not born a woman,
but one becomes a woman”. So, this sort of play with the language aspects and how it interferes
with the meaning making process has been one of the important objectives of Judith Butler's work.
And this sort of an idea also rejects assumption that all women share a common kind of oppression,
and they could be clubbed together under a common kind of an identity. So in that
sense the postmodern feminism is also about challenging identitarian terms
such as ‘queer’ and ‘transgender', and also about locating women away from all kinds of
essentializing and universalizing ideas. There are certain very market ways in
which postmodern feminism departs or moves away from the existing kinds of feminist theories,
the postmodern feminist approach criticized the preceding feminist theory for claiming
false universality. And this was due to the use of categories such as a white, or western,
or heterosexual, or middle class, and postmodern feminist began to argue that these sort of
universalizing essentialists are concepts cannot be used to talk about all women across the globe
and this also entail that one cannot see women as a single homogeneous group, but should be
attentive to the differences, which are inherent within. So, in that sense the term ‘difference'
could be located at the heart of all postmodern feminisms. Postmodern feminism also critiqued
all preceding theories as being part of the essentialist masculinist enlighten comes closer to
the postmodern ideas shared by a number of other theorists. And some of the major proponents of
this postmodern post structuralist of feminism are Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler.
Postmodern feminism is concerned more with language discourses and relationships between
power and knowledge and less about politics and opportunities. So, how does it differ
from say radical feminism or Marxist feminism or liberal feminism? Radical feminism operates
with the assumption that at the heart of all kinds of oppression remains patriarchy and
the society is inherently patriarchal.. Marxist feminism moves away a little bit
from radical feminism and argues that it is not all about patriarchy it is also about
capitalism. And when we come to liberal feminism it talks about gender as a limiting principle,
which could harm and which could delimit both men and women it talks about giving equal
opportunities to men and women. It also does not seek to revolutionize the system, but rather it
refers to a work within the system and reforms the systems in a particular ways. In that sense
postmodern feminism is very different from radical feminism, Marxist feminism or liberal feminism.
So it is also important to delineate the distinction between feminism and feminist theory,
feminism needs to be seen as a stance it is more like a political position, but feminist theory on
the other hand is a philosophical and analytical approach that employs this political position to
read cultural practices like art or literature. So, when we talk about feminist theory it is also
drawing a link between the representations of women in art and the real material conditions
in which they live, this understanding of the distinctions is very important
just like our understanding just like we understand the distinction between
post modernism and post modernist theories. One of the most common ways in which feminism
and post modernism has been talked together as their representation is natural allies. So,
Linda Nicholson in her edited work Feminism/Post modernism published in 1990,
she asked this person in question- “ Is post modernism a natural ally of feminism- and
this is primarily due to be its opposition to a normative masculinity, which operates in league
with the ideals of enlightenment project”?- and this identification of a natural ally in each
other for feminism identifying an ally in post modernism and for postmodernism identifying an
ally in feminism, this has been seen as a most common form of retiring, the most common form of
critic which could be used in this context. And there are certain definite of reasons
for seeing postmodernism and feminism as complementary forces, because if we talk
of feminist literary criticism which is a direct product of the women's movements of the 1960s,
we can see that those theories and those writers they realize the significance of the images of
women, and also realize that it is vital to combat them and question their authority and the feminist
literary critical practices were also defined against the traditional representation of women.
In similar ways postmodernity or post modernism was also characterized by smaller and multiple
narratives, they also questioned Meta narratives like patriarchy, capitalism, liberal humanism,
and Marxism. So, at some level both feminist theories and both postmodernist theories we
are moving away from the grand narrative of the enlightenment project and also identifying
certain structures of oppression which were inherent to those enlightenment projects.
And post modernism moved away from the classical dualist practices and also
against the fears asceticism of the 19th century works and they also reacted against the absolute
unitary conception of knowledge. So, these two ideas in which feminist theory moves against
the traditional representation of women, and how postmodernist theories move against the
absolute unitary conception of knowledge they go together as complementary forces,
though they work in different paradigms it is a difficult not to notice some of
the similarities with which they operate. And post modernism feminism , has also been
seen as two leading forces of a times two leading movements, two leading conceptual frameworks
which are also very definitive of these times, and the intellectual and the academic culture
of the western capitalist democracies they also seem to reflect these two framework,
they also seem to reject these two frameworks in more dominant fashion.
And postmodernism and feminism in that sense they also share they certain affinities in
their struggles against the grand narratives. And very important to know that these are not
descriptive categories, but they are constitutive and evaluative terms. But this affinity that we
locate between postmodernism and feminism is not as neat as it looks there are also
certain contradictions which are part of this. If we look at two positions adopted by Linda
Hutcheon and Chris Weedon, Linda Hutcheon's note said- “ post modernism has not theorized agency;
It has no strategies of resistance that would correspond to feminist ones. There is no way
in which the feminist and the postmodern can be conflated”, and Chris Weedon also reiterates- “
feminism is politics. Postmodernism is not; it is certainly political, but it is politically
ambivalent, double encoded as both complicity and critique; so that it can be (and has been)
recuperated by both the left and the right, and each ignoring half of that double coding”. So,
in what Linda Hutcheon and Chris Weedon highlights or we can also see the contradictions which
are in operation in these discussions related to feminism and post modernism.
And Patricia Waugh also illustrates a way in which some of the feminist theories also need
to move away from the ideas such as the death of the author or the incredulity towards her grand
narratives. In her own words- “they should not be surprised that so many women in the seventies
articulated a desire to become ‘authors of their own lives' at precisely the moment that Barthes
was announcing the death of that concept”. So here Patricia Waugh was also talking back
to the ideas such as the death of the author, because it was also a way in which women who
were just beginning to articulate themselves were also, they were forced negate themselves because
it was the wake of post modernism. So, there are various ways in which post modernism and feminism
they seem to contradict each other and they seem not to share a certain kind of politics.
And Nancy Hartstock also shares this same opinion when we talk about the shift towards objectivity,
and in 1990 she writes –“ why is it that just at the moment when so many of us who
have been silenced begin to demand the right to name ourselves, to act as subjects rather
than objects of history, that just then the concept of subject hood becomes problematic?”
Why post modernism celebrates this moving away from history, the moving away from subjectivity?
Feminism finds precisely that problematic because their politics is also rooted very heavily
very predominantly on the idea of history. And a similar thing could be noted in the
differences in the deconstructive impulses put forward by postmodernism and feminism,
on the one hand postmodern deconstructive theories the deconstructive approaches can be
seen as nihilistic as they do not really resolved anything and there is no way of knowing anything,
it is a move away from epistemology towards the celebration of ontological existences.
Femiinism on the other hand it employs a more positive kind of deconstruction, because through
the employment of deconstructive practices which are being used in certain texts the feminist
practices are able to denaturalize cultural practices and binary oppositions. And this is
also a way in and, and it is also imperative that these sort of deconstructive practices employed
from the feminist perspective they grounded in the idea that women were and are oppressed.
So, it is this sense of history which gives a positive impulse to the deconstruction which
is being used from a feminist standpoint and it is the move away from history,
it is a move away from knowing, move away from identifying anything as truth or anything is
knowledge that makes the postmodern deconstructive approach a more nihilistic and more negative.
And this also brings us to another important factor that the feminists critics,
the feminists critics and the feminist conceptual frameworks also have this need to believe in or
acknowledge a certain grand narratives. And also to acknowledge that there is a
certain dominant consensus which is in practice which is in place and if we do not do that it
becomes impossible to challenge, subvert, and rigid those grand narratives which have
also become the basis, become the foundation of various practices of suppression and oppression.
While looking at the various ways in which the feminist theories may be posited,
in opposition to postmodern theories it is important to look at Linda Hutcheon who
seems to have a struck a balance the right kind of a balance in understanding of post
modernism and also in placing feminism and post modernism together in the same framework
during high literary critical practices. Linda Hutcheon is a Canadian academic
and she is also the author of a number of influential theories related to post modernism,
she also has the uncanny ability to place them within the broader debates of the contemporary.
And some of her important works include A Postmodern Reader, A Poetics of Postmodernism
History, Theory, and Fiction, The Canadian Postmodern, A Theory of Adaptation Rethinking
Literary History and also A Theory of Parody. As survey of her works would tell you her work
focuses on the idea of parody and also on the ways in which she employs post modernism to analyze
particular historical and a narrative a fiction. The feminist position that Linda Hutcheon adopts
in connection with her work on post modernism it drew particular attention with respect to
the base in which she contradicted, the idea of Jameson the arguments of Jameson which also
predominantly argued that post modernism suspense the base of any certainty such as history,
subjectivity, or reference and also suspense all tiny kinds of standard of judgment.
And James also lamented the lack of critical capabilities as we have noticed and his work
and Hutcheon on the other hand highlights how postmodern modalities aid the process
of critic rather than suspending there. so here Linda Hutcheon uses a very efficient
framework a very efficient set of arguments to move against Jameson position of arguing
that post modernism is eventually nothing, but an offshoot of capitalist practices. Linda Hutcheon
in that sense also takes us through this journey where she where she illustrates that postmodernism
works through a parody and how the element of parody helps postmodern text to both legitimize
and subvert that which it parodies. And she also shows through a discussion of a range of texts
that post modernism can rethink history. And for this she particularly sets out to
debunk the Marxist critics of post modernism she argues against the dominant notions put forward
by Marxist theory such as Jameson and Terry Eagleton, who also hold the view that postmodern
intertextuality merely reproduces the past in the form of a shallow and compromised nostalgia,
rather than revealing its construction in discourse and the ideology, they also showed
through a series of illustrations how there is an impossibility in engaging with political
a critic when it comes to postmodern art, how it is all about shallowness and depthlessness,
how there is an impossibility to talk about what lies behind the object of art.
But Linda Hutcheon disputes this implication entirely and she responds to Eagleton by way of
an analysis of his own historical novel Saints and Scholars published in 1987. And Eagleton's
postmodern novel becomes more important in this context because he is a Marxist critic who has
accused postmodern fiction of being a historical, and the irony of the situation is that Eagleton
has written Saints and Scholars which has then begun to be seen as one of the seminal
postmodern texts where we also see the paradox of post modernism use and abuse of history.
And in this use of Terry Eagleton we also find la Hutcheon taking a very interesting path a
very interesting new literary and by choosing to analyze Eagleton's Saints and Scholars to
disprove the Marxist critics of post modernism to debunk the Marxist critics of post modernism,
Linda Hutcheon also emerges a salutary critical of victor in this context.
And if we look at the work Saints and Scholars by Terry Eagleton,
it can be seen as a postmodern work of a Marxist critic which is a quite in oxymoron. And we also
identify Saints and Scholars is seen as one of the typical postmodern texts for various reasons we
find a number of periodic intertextual echoes in the text and that there is also a sense of
met fictional self-consciousness emerging. And in this work we can see that Eagleton
successfully problematize is the distinction between the fictional and real for example,
we have certain historical characters such as Conolly, Leopold Bloom and Ludwig Wittgenstein
and also Nicolai Bakhtin, whose apparently Mikhail Bakhtin's brother. Eagleton is basically
offering as a new way of representing history and this is not derived from
the official account of the victors, but it is taken from the unofficial and from the usually
unrecorded perspectives of victims of history. And this sort of an approach that he takes towards
history and this take of this sort of an approach that he adopts in terms of his narratives in terms
of the textualizing process. It also seems to reconcile seemingly opposing positions,
so by using Saints and scholars by Terry Eagleton to debunk the postmodernist myths.
Linda Hutcheon is also drawing our attention to the fact that to collapse hierarchies is not to
collapse distinctions, and this instantly is also one of the major critics from the Marxist
perspective against post modernism, that post modernism is not attentive,
it is not sensitive to the various forms of distinctions which they also consider as not being
very positive or not being very encouraging. And on the other hand Linda Hutcheon from
a feminist perspective she argues that the collapsing of the hierarchies need not mean the
collapsing of distinctions and in the same way, it is a pluralizing rhetoric of postmodernism that
needs to be highlighted otherwise its entirely to miss the point of what post modernism entails.
And in her own work she talks at length about the need to bring together the ideas of feminism
and post modernism in order to arrive at a more informed political critic, I read
from her work- “ “ “Feminist practice - in theory, criticism, and art itself- has posed new questions
regarding the role of culture in the construction of patriarchy. It has addressed the tacit
definitions of gender, class, and culture that are operative- and dominant- at any given historical
moment. It has joined with the postmodern moving as away from the general universal Truth,
to specific contextualized truths. It has forced us to see gender in relation to race, class,
ethnicity and other forms of power relations- not in natural, unchangeable power relations,
but as constructed by particular social, economic and political forces. It has overlapped
with our postmodern concern, for exposing the relationships between meanings produced at the
level of culture and meanings produced at other levels of the social formation. In other words,
feminism in postmodernism have taught that and how we both make and how we both make and make sense
of our culture”. So, this is a kind of a parallel that she draws between the feminist practices and
also the postmodern conceptual frameworks. And in the context of her discussion of
similar texts such as Terry Eagleton's Saints and Scholars , Hutcheon also uses this very
interesting phrase which she herself had coined ‘historiographic metafiction'. She uses this term
‘historiography metafiction' to describe those literary texts that assert an interpretation of
the past, but are also intensely self reflexive. And this kind of fiction, this kind of metafiction
which uses history in a particular way, they are also critical of their own version of truth as
being partial, and biased and incomplete and therein lies the self-reflexivity of the text.
And this metafiction also has an advantage it allows us to speak constructively about the
past in a way that acknowledged the falsity and violence of the objective historian’s past. So
there is a possibility to engage with fiction, and there is also a very real possibility of offering
a political critique. Here we use and abuse of history as Hutcheon puts, it comes into a play
in different forms in historiographic metafiction. There are certain works that she herself cites as
examples of historiographic metafiction ,such as John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman,
Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Thomas Pynchon's
Mason and Dixon, and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughter House Five and also A.S Byatt's Possession.
So, all of these novels they engage with the idea of history in a very playful way,
they engage with the idea of history and also give an interpretation of the past,
but from a very fictional from a very self-reflexive, from a point of view
that entirely challenges history, truth and all kinds of finality. So, this term ‘historiographic
metafiction’ has been increasingly used to analyze and critically engage with the
fiction produced during the postmodern age. It is also important to run you through some
of the other important feminist interventions of this period. The most important one being Patricia
Waugh's Feminine Fictions published in 1989 and there is also the term coined by Alice Jardine,
‘gynesis' in the context of her discussions in opposition to the gyno critics and how the new
term could be used to talk about the postmodern feminist, but; however, the term and the idea
did not get much currency as she had hoped. And we have Mary Jacobus talking about not
the sexuality of the text, but the textuality of sex and here we also
find a lot of discussions relating to the body and about the need for writing the body in the
context of postmodern feminist's discussions. And Catherine Belsey spoke about juxtaposing
the realist and the postmodern strategies for a more politically effective rendition,
more politically effective articulation of history and of fiction, because she felt
and argue that when you come back recognizable realist elements of fiction and also use them to
challenge the conventions through disruptive strategies there is a possibility for a more
effective kind of political strategy to emerge. And she also used the term interrogative text
to talk about this kind of fiction, which would use realist elements, but also certain
subversive and disruptive strategies. Craig Owens talked about feminism as
an instance of postmodern thought and we have Donna Haraway who wrote A Manifesto for Cyborgs
in 1985. So, there are two moments which are particularly important in today's discussion for
us, one is Patricia Waugh's Feminine Fictions and Donna Haraway's idea of the cyborgs. So,
we book and our discussion of postmodern feminisms between Patricia Waugh and Donna Haraway.
Patricia Waugh wrote this immensely popular and important influential work titled Feminine
Fictions revisiting the postmodern. In this she attempted to cover the reasons why women
writers have been a largely excluded from the consideration of postmodern art, if we look at
our own discussions the ways in which we had been looking at the postmodern theories, the postmodern
conceptual frameworks in the last couple of weeks, we have also noted this conspicuous
absence of women from the entire discussion. The female writers, the female thinkers
and theorists, they are foregrounded only when we particularly talk about feminism,
when we particularly talk about gender. So, with the exception of Julia kristeva
or Judith Butler or Helene Cixous we do not have much of a discussion of women or
women artists in the postmodern scenario. And Patricia Waugh, also points out that
the postmodern author is apparently represented through the universal use of the pronoun ‘he'. And
this is very ironic and this is very disturbing, particularly because postmodern theorists,
they seem to argue against the meta narratives they seem to move away from all kinds of,
limiting descriptions and limiting frameworks, but at the same time it continues to be quite
a patriarchal even when we move away from all those structures which support
the grand narratives such as patriarchy. And Patricia Waugh in addition also talks
about how she had been amazed at the number of general accounts of postmodernism which do not
even mention gender, and this conspicuous absence cannot be overlooked it could not be construed as
an oversight, because it is also one of the ways in which post modernism defines itself,
post modernism frames itself by moving away from all grand narratives and all kinds of
limiting frameworks and binaries. While this sort of an absence remains central to the discussions
of feminism and post modernism, it is also an important thing that we need to come back and
engage with it is equally important to take a look at Donna Haraway's work on cyborgs which
also challenges the newer possibilities and for engaging with feminism in postmodernism
in a more systematic fashion. Donna Haraway's work acquires a lot of significance in a culture
of high technology, where the boundaries are no longer clear, she talks about how
the distinction between a human and animal, animal and machine, or a human and a machine
are increasingly getting blood in this age of increase in this age of information technology.
And she also particularly talks about the figure of cyborgs to talk about a new kind of feminism
which is available to us. And cyborg is a figure without boundaries it is both human and machine,
it is also used as a metaphor by Haraway to talk about the socialist feminist theoretical
interventions. And in that sense Haraway is also arguing, she is also illustrating
through the use of cyborgs, that it may help a feminism theorist imagine a world that is not
seen in or confined to hierarchical dualisms. So, by imagining a new kind of figures which
is that of a cyborg which challenges boundaries and distinctions, it is also giving a leeway to
the postmodern feminist movement, because cyborgs resists and eludes final definitions in various
ways and this should be this Haraway argues case like feminist theory the intention of which is
to also avoid totalizing the category of woman. And Donna Haraway is particularly noted for two
of her works Simians Cyborgs and Women The Reinvention of Nature,
and also her essay A Cyborg Manifesto which was published in 1985 the book was in 1984.
So, these two important works also could be seen as a major intervention in locating
the need for feminism and locating how feminism operates in this age of cyborgs in this digital
age of technology. Caught between these opposing positions that Patricia Waugh, and Donna Haraway
holds, its also important to look at some of the new articulations from the feminist standpoint.
This interesting work Sara med’s Differences that Matters ,published in 1998 deserves a special
mention. In this interesting work Sara med talks about the need to challenge the existing ways of
theorizing the relationship between feminism and post modernism, because there are certain
limited ways there are certain conventional predictable ways conventional the relationship
between feminism and postmodernism gets located . And postmodernism Sara med argues has been allowed
to dictate certain feminist debates and she also argues that instead of this feminism must be
allowed to ask questions of postmodernism. And she feels at the way ahead the way to
go forward is also by asking these sort of questions, and speaking back to post modernism
from a predominantly feminist standpoint . And this speaking back entails a refusal
to position post modernism as a generalized condition of the world, and it also requires a
closer reading of what post modernism is actually doing, and in that sense why are the things that
she proposes is to examine the construction of post modernism in relation to, rights, ethics,
subjectivity, authorship, metafiction, and film. So here instead of post modernism enquiring into
how feminism functions, here is Sara med arguing for the need to examine with the
feminist tools how post modernism works and what postmodernism is actually doing.
So, it is important to locate the ambivalence as in these different discussions,
it is important to see the different political positions that these discussions in the context
of feminism in post modernism adopts and its all the more important to understand
how these differences these distinctions and these opposing ideas are also inherent to our
understanding of post modernism in literature. In this brief outline that we have given about
feminism and postmodernism you would have also figured out that postmodernism begins to make
sense not as isolated kinds of theories and concepts and frameworks, but it begins to make
sense only when it is in dialogue, when it is in constant dialogue with other movements such as
Marxism and feminism. And it is also important to see how postmodernism begins to respond to
these other challenges which are being posited from the Marxist from the feminist framework.
So in that connection in the following session we should also be taking a look at how the
moment of the postcolonial, also informs the understanding of the postmodernism how it also
plays a certain new demands of post modernism, which would radically change the conceptions
which would also radically alter some of the definitions that are currently in place. So,
with this we begin to wind up today's lecture and in the next session we shall be taking a
look at how the postcolonial moment intervenes and how it redefines the idea of the postmodern.
Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you in the next session.
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