On Contemporary Feminist Theory

In: Dissent: a journal devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy, Band 36, S. 366-370

Abstract

An analysis of a paradigm shift in US academia which posits that the major legacy of literary, artistic, & philosophical works to be transmitted to future generations should represent more than just the white, European & North American, male experience. Feminist scholarship has been a force in advancing this shift, primarily through identifying the misogynist underpinnings of Western tradition & the persistent misogynist orientation in political theory & empirical research. Gender is not even considered to be an analytical category; it is thus trivialized & left with no explanatory framework. The traditional alliances of feminist theory with the traditions of Sigmund Freud & Friedrich Nietzsche have been counterproductive because these two thinkers also held misogynist views. The current alliance between feminism & poststructuralism also presents political & intellectual problems. Thus, feminist theory still awaits critical application to the present. C. Grindle