scholarly journals Reading Esther as a Postcolonial Feminist Icon for Asian Women in Diaspora

Open Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 001-034
Author(s):  
Ciin Sian Siam Hatzaw
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Jewish Woman ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
Asian Women ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Asian Immigration ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Interdisciplinary Theory ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist

Abstract The book of Esther has been the subject of a wealth of scholarship which has, at times, presented Esther’s character as antifeminist. Through the framework of postcolonial and feminist theory, this article interprets Esther in light of her marginalised identity. Her position as a Jewish woman in diaspora who must hide her ethnicity and assimilate into Persian culture reveals parallels to contemporary Asian women in Western diaspora, due to perpetuated stereotypes of passiveness and submission, and the model minority myth associated with Asian immigration. Esther’s sexualisation reveals further parallels to the fetishisation and sexual exploitation of Asian women. If we read the text in light of her marginalisation, we can highlight the racial and gendered oppression within the existing power structures, as well as the levels of privilege at work within the character dynamics. Esther serves as an example of the potential that lies in recognising positions of privilege, the implications of identity, and understanding different forms of resistance in order to form a liberative theology. This article outlines the position of Asian women and their proximity to whiteness in relation to other BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of colour) communities, revealing unexpected connections to Esther’s character. By situating Esther within intersectional and interdisciplinary theory, her status as a postcolonial feminist icon emerges. Through her story, Asian women in diaspora may find their experiences reflected in the journey to liberation.

scholarly journals Eksploitasi Concubinage dan Subjek Subaltern: Hegemoni atas Perempuan Indonesia dalam Tinjauan Kritis Pascakolonial dan Feminisme Novel De Winst Karya Afifah Afra

ATAVISME ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Bambang Aris Kartika
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Bargaining Power ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
The Body ◽  
Double Burden ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sexually Marginalized ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist

Tulisan ini membahas praktik kolonialisasi Belanda yang mengakibatkan terjadinya bias ketidakadilan gender terhadap posisi perempuan Indonesia dalam novel De Winst karya Afifah Afra. Bias ketidakadilan gender ini tercermin dari adanya eksploitasi secara seksual terhadap kaum perempuan dengan menjadikan mereka sebagai concubinage atau gundik dan menjadi subjek subaltern akibat praktikal hegemoni kekuasaan kaum laki-laki kulit putih kolonial Belanda. Melalui pendekatan teori pascakolonial dan ragam kritik sastra feminisme pascakolonial diperoleh suatu pemahaman bahwa kaum perempuan pada masa kolonial menjadi subjek yang termarginalkan, baik secara seksual maupun sosial. Kaum perempuan tidak memiliki bargaining power dalam ranah hukum untuk menuntut adanya pengakuan sebagai istri yang sah dan memiliki kedudukan yang terhormat, bukan menjadi korban dominasi kekuasaan laki-laki atas tubuh, baik secara seksual maupun tenaga untuk urusan domestik rumah tangga (double burden), termasuk juga stereotipe negatif yang cenderung merendahkan harkat dan martabatnya sebagai perempuan. Abstract : This paper discusses the practice of Dutch colonization which resulted in a gender injustice bias toward the position of Indonesian women in the novel De Winst author by Afifah Afra. This is reflected from the practical sexual exploitation against women by making them as concubines (concubinage) or “wives” who are actually represented as a concubine because of no formal “diperistri” by white people and become the subject of subaltern or oppressed because of the practical power of the male hegemony white man of Dutch colonial. Through a variety of postcolonial theory and postcolonial feminist literary criticism, the analysis gained an understanding that women in the colonial period became the subject of both sexually marginalized and social. These women had no bargaining power in the realm of law to demand the recognition of the legitimate as a wife and a respectable position, not a victim of male domination of power over the body, either sexual or domestic labor for their household affairs (double burden ), including negative stereotypes that tend to lower their dignity as women. Key Words: concubinage; subaltern; colonialism; theory of postcolonialism; postcolonial feminist literary of critics

Intifada Incantation #2

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-49
Author(s):  
Mekhatansh McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist Theory ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist ◽  
Epistemological Framework

This work examines how June Jordan's poetry dedicated to solidarity is a pedagogical and epistemological framework in SOLHOTLex and in engaging Black girls around the interconnectedness of the occupation of Palestine and the genocide of Syrians under the Bashar Al Assad regime. It begins to answer the questions of how frameworks like womanism and postcolonial feminist theory inform engagement around solidarity in SOLHOTLex and organizing Black girls while examining what critical engagement and organizing looks like when the voices of Black girls are in symphony with the rest of the world's resistance struggles.

scholarly journals Shopping Centres, Cycling Accessibility and Planning—The Case of Nova Lund in Sweden

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Till Koglin ◽  
Lucas Glasare
Keyword(s):  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Shopping Centre ◽  
The Past ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
The Subject

This paper evaluates the history and cycling accessibility of Nova, a shopping centre established in Lund, Sweden, in 2002. The current situation was also analysed through observation and a literature review. Moreover, the study conducted a closer analysis of the history and role of the municipality based on further literature study and interviews with officials. The conclusion of the analysis indicates poor and unsafe bikeways caused by conflicts of interest between politicians, officials, landowners and the general public. It also depicts a situation in which the municipality’s master plan has been ignored, and, in contrast to the local goals, cycling accessibility at Nova has seen no significant improvement since the shopping centre was first established. The reasons for this, arguably, are a relatively low budget for bikeway improvements in the municipality, as well as a situation in which decision-makers have stopped approaching the subject, as a result of the long and often boisterous conflicts it has created in the past. Lastly, it must be noted that it is easy to regard the whole process of Nova, from its establishment to the current situation, as being symptomatic of the power structures between drivers and cyclists that still affect decision-makers at all levels.

scholarly journals Boundary violation and sexual exploitation in psychiatry and psychotherapy: a review

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 312-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sameer P. Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Professional Roles ◽  
Professional Boundaries ◽  
Boundary Violation ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Practice ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sexual Boundary Violations

In psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice, ‘boundaries' delineate the personal and the professional roles and the differences that should characterise the interpersonal encounters between the patient/client and the professional. Boundaries are essential to keep both parties safe. The author outlines the various types of boundary violation that can arise in clinical practice, their consequences (both clinical and legal), how professionals can avoid them and how health care institutions might respond, should they occur. He concentrates on sexual boundary violations, because these have been the subject of most empirical study.

scholarly journals The Subject of Critique: Ricoeur in Dialogue with Feminist Philosophers

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Annemie Halsema
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
The Self ◽  
Major Point ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Rule Out

This paper aims to show the relevance of Ricœur’s notion of the self for postmodern feminist theory, but also to critically assess it. By bringing Ricœur’s “self” into dialogue with Braidotti’s, Irigaray’s and Butler’s conceptions of the subject, it shows that it is close to the feminist self in that it is articulated into language, is embodied and not fully conscious of itself. In the course of the argument, the major point of divergence also comes to light, namely, that the former considers discourse to be a laboratory for thought experiments, while the latter consider discourse to be normative, restrictive and exclusive. In the second part, the possibility of critique and change are further developed. Ricœur does not rule out critique, rather interpretation includes distanciation and critique. Finally, his notion of productive imagination explains how new identifications become possible. 

Writing Lebanese Feminist History

Women Rising ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 208-216
Author(s):  
Nicole Khoury
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
International Context ◽  
Feminist History ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist Theory ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist ◽  
Collective Activism ◽  
Important Shift

In this chapter, Nicole Khoury analyzes the editorials in one of Lebanon’s most successful feminist journals, Al-Raida. Through examining the first decade of Rose Ghurayyib’s editorials, she recovers a part of Lebanese feminist history that has been largely ignored. The editorials illustrate that arguments for gender equality in the midseventies were grounded in liberal feminist theory. Written during the violent civil war, and the period of foreign influences, the editorials mark a shift in the focus of the Lebanese feminist movement to postcolonial feminist theory, a shift that changed the way the movement articulated its goals. While the editorials first addressed an English-speaking elite Lebanese audience, they later began to focus on a collective activism that defined women’s needs and goals within the larger national and international context, marking an important shift in Lebanese feminist history.

Recognizing freedom

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 885-906
Author(s):  
Katharine M. McIntyre
Keyword(s):  
Ontological Commitment ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
Ethical Concept ◽  
Recognition Theory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Interpersonal Recognition ◽  
Ontological Concept

Domination as opposed to what? Michel Foucault’s works on power and subject formation uncover the subtle ways in which disciplinary power structures create opportunities for domination. Yet Foucault says little about the forms of freedom that we should prefer. I argue that the proper opposite of Foucauldian domination is a version of the concept of social freedom found in contemporary recognition theory. I establish that Foucault implicitly commits himself to an ontological concept of recognition in which the subject is constituted by acts that affirm particular qualities. On the basis of this ontological commitment, there is room for Foucault to endorse an ethical concept of recognition as well, in which the subject’s freedom is bound to a variety of forms of institutional and interpersonal recognition. Finally, Foucauldian insights regarding the potentially dominating tendencies of genuine acts of recognition lead to helpful modifications of the concept of social freedom.

Sally Haslanger and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak on the Possibility of Metaphysics of Resistance and its Implications for Postcolonial Feminist Theologizing

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
Jeane C. Peracullo
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Asian Women ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Social Theorist ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist ◽  
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

In Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique, contemporary feminist philosopher Sally Haslanger claims that the reality of race and gender (both social constructs) is built on unjust social structures and must be resisted. Meanwhile, contemporary social theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak extends the term ‘subaltern’ to Third World Asian women who were rendered inarticulate by centuries of oppressive masculinist, imperialist, and colonial rule. This article examines how a metaphysics of resistance, culled from philosophy and postcolonial studies, can contribute to expanding postcolonial feminist theologizing.

scholarly journals Shifting frontiers of transcendence in theology, philosophy and science

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelius W. Du Toit
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Epistemological Structure

This article dealt cursorily with developments in theology, philosophy and the sciences that have contributed to what one might call horizontal transcendence. The premise is that humans have evolved into beings that are wired for transcendence. Transcendence is described in terms of the metaphor of frontiers and frontier posts. Although the frontiers of transcendence shift according to the insights, understanding and needs of every epoch and world view, it remains transcendent, even in its immanent mode. Diverse perceptions of that frontier normally coexist in every era and we can only discern a posteriori which was the dominant one. Frontiers are fixed with reference to the epistemologies, notions of the subject and power structures of a given era. From a theological point of view, encounter with the transcendent affords insight, not into the essence of transcendence, but into human self-understanding and understanding of our world. Transcendence enters into the picture when an ordinary human experience acquires a depth and an immediacy that are attributed to an act of God. In philosophy, transcendence evolved from a noumenal metaphysics focused on the object (Plato), via emphasis on the epistemological structure and limits of the knowing subject (Kant) and an endeavour to establish a dynamic subject-object dialectics (Hegel), to the assimilation of transcendence into human existence (Heidegger). In the sciences certain developments opened up possibilities for God to act in non-interventionist ways. The limitations of such an approach are considered, as well as promising new departures – and their limitations – in the neurosciences. From all of this I conclude that an immanent-transcendent approach is plausible for our day and age.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document