Synopses & Reviews
The intellectual movements of psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and feminism have redefined the ways in which we think about human experience. And yet, an integration of these movements has been elusive, if not impossible. In this landmark book, J.C. Smith and Carla J. Ferstman combine these disparate traditions to create a provocative, unified, and tightly woven perspective that transcends the misogyny implicit in much of Freudian psychoanalytic theory.
The dialectics of domination and submission are central to Smith and Ferstman's argument. Men and women, they insist, must avoid the temptation to fetishize equality and recognize the roles of domination and submission in the human psyche, or, in Nietzsche's terms, the Will to Power. They argue that the unification of psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and feminism leads us to a shocking conclusion--that women and men cannot move beyond the suffering which so haunts the human condition, unless heterosexual men surrender the power that is causing their misery and affirm life by joyfully accepting domination by women. And women, conversely, must reaffirm their power by rejecting Oedipal genderization and embracing a liberating matriarchal consciousness and a matriphallic sexuality.
A work of tremendous insight and extraordinary intellectual energy, The Castration of Oedipus will provoke strong reactions in all readers regardless of ideology.
Review
"In what might seem an overcrowded marketplace of books on the politics of identity, Barbara Ryan has assembled an essential collection of papers that broadly construct the basic arguments of similarity and difference dividing and uniting women. Identity Politics in the Women's Movement illustrates the difficulties as well as the rewards of finding a basis for solidarity while honoring the inequalities inherent in women's multiple identities."-Carol Mueller,Arizona State University, Winner Susan Koppelman Award for Excellence, 2001
Review
"Critical examination of the role of identity in academic and activist feminism."-Women's Review of Books,
Review
"This lively, well-edited collection of papers offers an excellent introduction to many of the issues and interests at stake."-The European Legacy,
Review
"Whether you agree with Smith and Ferstman or not, this book will provoke you to think. And that may be its biggest contribution after all." -Professor Stephen Taubeneck,University of British Columbia
Review
"J.C. Smith and Carla J. Ferstman have collaborated on a project that shamelessly completes the incomplete work of Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan, and Derrida. They insist on a radical social, psychical, and political transformation of conventional feminism."-Professor Henry Kariel,author of The Desperate Politics of Postmodernism
Synopsis
In recent years, identity has come to be seen as a process rather than a fact or deterministic force. Yet, recognizable identity traits continue to draw people together and provide them with a sense of empowering commonality. Although the plasticity afforded identity has freed up rigid definitions and guidelines for affiliation, some believe that nebulous demarcations of identity may deprive women of a solid position from which to effectively contest centers of power.
Bringing together articles by well-known authors and theorists such as Audre Lourde, June Jordan, Daphne Patai, Barbara Smith, Marilyn Frye, Shane Phelan, Leila J. Rupp, Hazel Carby, and Adrienne Rich with lesser-known writers and scholars, this broad-based anthology ranges widely from personal narratives to empirical research. The book unpacks issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and age, contributing a mélange of sharp, lively perspectives to current debate.
In a postmodern era of feminism, how do women come to identify, organize and mobilize themselves within a complex global network of relationships? Identity Politics in the Women's Movement offers critical examination of the inescapable role of identity in academic and activist feminism and the opportunities, challenges and conflicts identity politics pose.
Synopsis
An essential collection that constructs the arguments of similarity and difference dividing and uniting women
In recent years, identity has come to be seen as a process rather than a fact or deterministic force. Yet, recognizable identity traits continue to draw people together and provide them with a sense of empowering commonality. Although the plasticity afforded identity has freed up rigid definitions and guidelines for affiliation, some believe that nebulous demarcations of identity may deprive women of a solid position from which to effectively contest centers of power.
Bringing together articles by well-known authors and theorists such as Audre Lourde, June Jordan, Daphne Patai, Barbara Smith, Marilyn Frye, Shane Phelan, Leila J. Rupp, Hazel Carby, and Adrienne Rich with lesser-known writers and scholars, this broad-based anthology ranges widely from personal narratives to empirical research. The book unpacks issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and age, contributing a m lange of sharp, lively perspectives to current debate.
In a postmodern era of feminism, how do women come to identify, organize and mobilize themselves within a complex global network of relationships? Identity Politics in the Women's Movement offers critical examination of the inescapable role of identity in academic and activist feminism and the opportunities, challenges and conflicts identity politics pose.
About the Author
J.C. Smith is Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia, and the author of Psychoanalytic Roots of Patriarchy: The Neurotic Foundations of Social Order, also from NYU Press.
Carla J. Ferstman is Associate Counsel at the firm of Bolton and Muldoon.