Oxford Readings in Feminism – serie

This collection of classic essays in feminist body studies investigates the history of the image of the female body; from the medical 'discovery' of the clitoris, to the 'body politic' of Queen Elizabeth I, to women deprecated as 'Hottentot Venuses' in the nineteenth century. The text look at the way in which coverings bear cultural meaning: clothing reform during the French Revolution, Islamic veiling, and the invention of the top hat; as well as the embodiment of cherished cultural values in social icons such as the Statue of Liberty or the Barbie doll. By considering culture as it defines not only women but also men, this volume offers both the student and the general reader an insight into the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study involved in feminist body studies.

Over the past fifteen years, a new dimension to the analysis of science has emerged. Feminist theory, combined with the insights of recent developments in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, has raised a number of new and important questions about the content, practice, and traditional goals of science. Feminists have pointed to a bias in the choice and definition of problems with which scientists have concerned themselves, and in the actual design and interpretation of experiments, and have argued that modern science evolved out of a conceptual structuring of the world that incorporated particular and historically specific ideologies of gender. The seventeen outstanding articles in this volume reflect the diversity and strengths of feminist contributions to current thinking about science.

The question of difference - between women and men and among women - is at the heart of feminist theory and the history of feminism. Feminists have long debated the meanings of sexual difference: is it an underlying truth of nature or the result of changing social belief? Are women the same as or different from men? Feminism and History argues that sexual difference, indeed that all forms of social differentiation, cannot be understood apart from history. It brings together the best critical articles available to analyse the ways in which differences among women and men have been produced.The articles range across many countries and time periods (from the Middle Ages to the present) and they include analyses of western and non-western experiences. There are discussions of race in the United States and in colonial contexts. A variety of theoretical approaches to the question of difference is included; but in all cases, difference is the focus of the historian's analysis.The analytic focus on difference distinguishes this book from other collections of women's history. It will be fascinating and essential reading for students and teachers of history, women's studies, gender studies, cultural studies, queer theory, and feminist theory.

Series Blurb Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main line of debate in the field. The categories of public and private have been at the centre of feminist theory for the past three decades. Focusing on the gendered relations of sexuality and the body, family life and democratic citizenship, feminists have redirected public debate on questions of privacy and publicity. They have challenged leading theories of the public sphere, adding immeasurably to the historical and cross-cultural understanding of public and private life, from the rise of liberal and democratic institutions in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to today's media-saturated public sphere. This volume presents the results of this multi-disciplinary feminist exploration. Contributors demonstrate the significance of the public/private distinction in feminist theory, its articulation in the modern and late modern public sphere, and its impact on identity politics within feminism in recent years. Feminism, the Public and the Private offers an essential perspective on feminist theory for students and teachers of women's and gender studies, cultural studies, history, political theory, geography and sociology.

Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main lines of debate in the field. This collection, edited by Morag Shiach, brings together exciting work in feminism and cultural studies from different countries and different historical moments. It combines 'classic' articles with more recent work to offer an insight into the challenges and innovations of work within cultural studies. The collection is organised thematically in ways which illuminate the development of theoretical and political debates within feminism and cultural studies. Different traditions within cultural studies are brought into relation with each other to explore areas such as commodification, women and labour, mass culture, fantasy and ideas of home.

Series Blurb: Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main line of debate in the field. Is there too much gender in politics, too much stereotyping of female and male? Or is there too little gender, too little attention to differences between women and men? Should feminists be challenging male dominance by opening up politics to women? Or is 'women' a fictitious entity that fails to address differences by class or race? Is equality best served by denying differences between the sexes? Or best promoted by stressing the special needs of women? The essays in Feminism and RPolitics answer these questions in a variety of ways, but all see feminism as transforming the way we think about and act in politics. Spanning issues of citizenship and political representation, the ambiguities of identity politics, and the problems in legislating for sexual equality, the readings provide an exciting overview of recent developments. This outstanding collection will be essential reading for any feminist who has doubted the importance of political studies, and any student of politics who has doubted the relevance of feminism.

This book brings together carefully selected essays on feminism and film with a view to tracing major developments in theory, criticism, and practices of women and cinema from 1973 to the present day. It illuminates the powerful, if controversial, role feminist research has played in the emergence of Film Studies as a discipline during these years; reprinting influential 1970s pioneering essays tracing the ensuing debates and challenges to key theories that shaped this field in the next two decades. Kaplan details the Euro-American contexts within which feminist film theories and practices emerged and traces the changing influences of French, German, and American intellectual movements on feminist film research. As well as a wide-ranging introduction which sets the selection of essays in context, readers will find examples of social-role, psychoanalytic, structuralist, post-structuralist, gay and lesbian, postmodern and postcolonial feminist film criticism, prefaced by introductory notes and including further readings.

The past two decades have seen the incursion of feminist thought into many academic areas. Within the academy, feminist approaches have gained some legitimacy and yet, simultaneous with these disciplinary advances, there have been charges of racism directed at feminist scholarship and practice. These charges have resulted in feminist work continuously reshaping itself. This volume represents the strength as well as diversity of writings which discuss 'race' and feminism showing how these two areas, usually considered to be distinct and therefore discrete from each other, have developed. Feminism and Race includes articles spanning a number of disciplinary areas, such as history, literary analysis, sociology, and psychology and provides a history of how second wave feminisms have negotiated 'race' as well as suggesting what future directions these debates may take.

Oxford Readings in Feminism Series Editors: Teresa Brennan and Susan James Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main lines of debate in the field. Ever since the publication of Joan Kellys Did Women have a Renaissance? in 1977, feminist historians and critics have been challenging the claims traditionally made for the liberating effects of the intellectual and artistic energies released by the European Renaissance. By analysing the work of gender in the evaluative languages of traditional Renaissance historiography, and by finding strategies for restoring the agency of women to the historical account, feminist scholars have helped to transform the object of Renaissance Studies across a range of disciplines. This collection brings together classic and more recent essays by feminist scholars in art, music, intellectual and social history, and the literature of the European vernaculars. It offers students and teachers a uniquely accessible introduction to the difference that academic feminism has made to the study of a period often claimed to be foundational to European modernity.

Oxford Readings in Feminism Series Editors: Teresa Brennan and Susan James Oxford Readings in Feminism provide accessible, one-volume guides to the very best in contemporary feminist thinking, assessing its impact and importance in key areas of study. Collected together by scholars of outstanding reputation in their field, the articles chosen represent the most important work on feminist issues, and concise, lively introductions to each volume crystallize the main lines of debate in the field. Ever since the publication of Joan Kellys Did Women have a Renaissance? in 1977, feminist historians and critics have been challenging the claims traditionally made for the liberating effects of the intellectual and artistic energies released by the European Renaissance. By analysing the work of gender in the evaluative languages of traditional Renaissance historiography, and by finding strategies for restoring the agency of women to the historical account, feminist scholars have helped to transform the object of Renaissance Studies across a range of disciplines. This collection brings together classic and more recent essays by feminist scholars in art, music, intellectual and social history, and the literature of the European vernaculars. It offers students and teachers a uniquely accessible introduction to the difference that academic feminism has made to the study of a period often claimed to be foundational to European modernity.

Christianity and Judaism have inspired reflective theology for thousands of years but until recently, little of it was written by women. Feminism not only proposes new answers to the questions, but compels a reevaluation as to the questions themselves.The essays in this volume represent the richnes of feminist writings in theology, an area that commands international interest, inside and outside the academy, and addresses aspects of theological study including biblical interpretation, historical approaches, doctrine philosophy of religion and ethics. This book brings together some of the best essays in the field, with an introduction by Janet Martin Soskice mapping the historical, global and doctrinal contributions to theology.The essys are arranged thematically, and an introduction mapping the area is enhanced by general remarks on each theme and specific comments on individual contributions. This book seeks to engage readers new to the field as well as professionals. The collection emphasises the importance of grass roots contributions alongside academic work.

This collection of essays seeks to expand the parameters of the debate on pornography. In an effort to move away from the divisive frameworks of which side are you on? and who counts as women worthy to be listened to? in feminist debates on pornography, this volume seeks to understand what pornography means to those who consume it, fight against it, work within it, and to those engaged in changing its meaning. By opening up a space for divergent points of view to address the complexity of sexual material, this volume seeks to forge solidarity amongst a diverse array of constituencies, including academics, activists, and sex workers from diverse socio-political contexts. Through seeking to address the relationship between imperialism, the exotic, and the pornographic, the collection moves away from Eurocentric perspectives on pornography, by including the perspectives of women involved in struggles for national liberation in the South. This volume explores a wide range of issues, such as, how the meaning of pornography is shaped by changing historical and political realities; the role law should play, if any, in the sex industry; whether union organizing can change the working conditions in the sex industry; kinds of representational politics available for redefining pornography; and how sexually explicity literature, videos, art, and music can serve the purpose of sexual freedom. Contributors to the volume include Diana Russell, Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, Wendy Brown, Becki Ross, Mallek Alloula, M. Jacqui Alexander, Victoria Ortiz, bell hooks, Rey Chow, Judith Butler, Candida Royalle, Zoraida Ramirez Rodriguez, amongst others.

This new collection of essays highlights the positive contributions that feminism can make to the history of philosophy. Drawn together within a chronological framework, pieces by leading feminist critics, such as Luce Irigaray and Martha Nussbaum, reveal the fresh perspectives that feminism can offer to the discussion of past philosophers, such as Plato, Spinoza, and Nietzsche. Rather than defining itself through opposition to a 'male' philosophical tradition, feminist philosophy emerges not only as an exciting new contribution to the history of philosophy, but also as a source of cultural self-understanding in the present.

Have we entered a historical moment of 'post-feminism'? This volume presents a timely and convincing 'no'. These essays demonstrate that there is a new generation of French women who take up questions of equality and difference from a position distinct from either first or second wave feminism, a position that often attempts to move beyond the binary of equality and/or difference to a new form of the individual.