Wheels of Change: Feminist Transgressions in Polish Culture and Society

2021 ◽  

Using rich and varied narrative images and resources, literary artworks, excerpts from philosophical and sociological writings, musicological theories and film studies, historical documents, and other materials, this collection of essays strongly sides with the feminist theory. All chapters tirelessly construct feminist discourse by depicting a new reality, language, and values to assess as well as understand the life, goals, and social achievements of women over a span of centuries in Polish culture and society. Feminist transgression is envisioned as a thematic category bridging diverse, seemingly loose, distant, and even apparently contradictory women’s accounts. This theme develops a cohesiveness among chapters and provides an underlying unity, built on the coincidence of opposites, known in Latin as the principle of “coincidentia oppositorum.” Even if the dialogue among chapters may be perceived on the surface as difficult, the volume’s parts communicate deeply with each other by narrating, detailing, elaborating, and enlarging in space and time the presented dynamics of women’s transgressions. Transgression thus creates a special form of debate.

Author(s):  
Jean Mills

This chapter examines Virginia Woolf’s foundational role in the development of feminist theory, placing her theoretical positions on women’s lives and life-writing, privacy, the body, and self-expression in dialogue with a diverse and actively changing continuum of feminist thought. Focusing on the return of rage to the forefront of feminist discourse and social media’s effect upon feminist politics, the chapter chronicles the changing critical responses to Woolf’s feminisms, in relation to her positions on feminist identities and feminist community. The chapter also investigates the ways in which women of colour feminists disclosed Woolf’s racialized self and racist thinking to assess the place of Woolf’s feminism in contemporary political thought. From issues seeking to reconcile and value difference and diversity with the uses of ambivalence and calls for unity and integration, the chapter places the concepts and vocabulary of feminist theory within the context of Virginia Woolf’s work and example.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
María Isabel Peña Aguado

<p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">La teoría feminista heredó de una tradición filosófica hostil la identificación de cuerpo y mujer. Partiendo de esta identificación de mujer y cuerpo es comprensible que un cuestionamiento del concepto ‘mujer’  influya asimismo en el lugar que va a encontrar el cuerpo dentro del movimiento y teoría feministas. Ese lugar será diferente dependiendo de las diversas reivindicaciones que marcan las diferencias entre los distintos feminismos y teorías </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US"><em>queer</em></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">. La pregunta que se plantea es hasta qué punto la precariedad del cuerpo femenino dentro de la misma teoría feminista es consecuencia del cuestionamiento del concepto de mujer o si, por el contrario, no será más bien el rechazo a una realidad corporal concreta lo que ha permitido y ayudado a desarmar los conceptos de ‘mujer’ y ‘mujeres’ hasta el punto de considerarlos como innecesario para el mismo discurso y políticas feministas contemporáneos.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Palabras claves: cuerpo, mujeres, feminismo, Teoría Queer</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US"><br /><em>Indeterminacy of the body: precariousness of body in the feminist discourse</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><em><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Feminist theory inherited the identification of woman and body from a hostile philosophical tradition. Given this identification, it is understandable that a questioning of the concept ‚woman‘ also influences the place that the body will find in the feminist movements and theories. The question that arises is how far the precariousness of the female body within feminist theory itself is the result of a questioning of the concept of ‘woman’ or whether, on the contrary, it is the rejection of a concrete corporal reality which has enabled and helped to disarm the concepts of ‚woman‘ and ‚women‘ to the point of considering them unnecessary for contemporary feminist discourse and politics.<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></em></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"><em><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Keywords: body, women, feminism, Queer Theory<br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></em></p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"> </p><p lang="de-DE" align="JUSTIFY"> </p>


Author(s):  
Danijela Kulezic-Wilson

This chapter explores cinematic listening by bringing together ideas from contemporary musical and sound studies, the concept of erotics in art championed in the 1970s feminist discourse, and ideas of “new materialism” in film studies. It emphasizes the sensuousness of film form as something distinct from sensory overload, and suggests that a sensuous mode of listening is inherently musical. Focusing on films including Arrival (2016), Under the Skin (2013), Elephant (2003), and Tree of Life (2011), the chapter shows that the erotics of cinematic listening is facilitated by the practice of foregrounding the materiality of music and an increasingly integrated approach to the soundtrack.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Else

<p>This thesis centres on a problem that stands at the heart of feminist theory: how women may come to understand themselves as speaking subjects located within historically specific, discursive social structures, to question those structures aloud, and to seek to change them. It combines self-narrative, feminist theory and writing practice to make sense of a body of published work which I produced between 1984 and 1999, with a consistent focus on some form of gendered discourse, by setting it in its personal, historical, and theoretical contexts. Although the thesis is built around published work, it is not primarily about results or outcomes, but rather about a set of active historical processes. Taking the form of a spirally structured critical autobiography spanning five and a half decades, it traces how one voice of what I have termed feminist oppositional imagining has emerged and taken its own worded shape. First, it constructs a double story of coming to writing and coming to feminism, in order to explore the formation of a writing subject and show the critical importance of the connections between subjectivity and oppositional imagining, and to highlight the need to find ways of producing knowledge which do not rely on the notion of the detached observer. Secondly, in a deliberate shift of form and focus, it steps back to canvass the historical context for the work I produced in response to the discursive shift that has become known as the New Right. It argues that by usefully enforcing a focus on the necessity of a commitment to social justice and human interdependence, this shift spurred the development of a feminist discourse, centred on unpaid work, which is capable of understanding and countering New Right perspectives on what it means to be a human being and to live in human society.</p>


The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory provides an overview of the analytical frameworks and theoretical concepts feminist theorists have developed to challenge established knowledge. Leading feminist theorists, from around the globe, provide in-depth explorations of a diverse array of subject areas, capturing a plurality of approaches. The Handbook raises new questions, brings new evidence, and poses significant challenges across the spectrum of academic disciplines, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of feminist theory. The chapters offer innovative analyses of the central topics in social and political science (e.g. civilization, development, divisions of labor, economies, institutions, markets, migration, militarization, prisons, policy, politics, representation, the state/nation, the transnational, violence); cultural studies and the humanities (e.g. affect, agency, experience, identity, intersectionality, jurisprudence, narrative, performativity, popular culture, posthumanism, religion, representation, standpoint, temporality, visual culture); and discourses in medicine and science (e.g. cyborgs, health, intersexuality, nature, pregnancy, reproduction, science studies, sex/gender, sexuality, transsexuality) and contemporary critical theory that have been transformed through feminist theorization (e.g. biopolitics, coloniality, diaspora, the microphysics of power, norms/normalization, postcoloniality, race/racialization, subjectivity/subjectivation). The Handbook identifies the limitations of key epistemic assumptions that inform traditional scholarship and shows how theorizing from women’s and men’s lives has profound effects on the conceptualization of central categories, whether the field of analysis is aesthetics, biology, cultural studies, development, economics, film studies, health, history, literature, politics, religion, science studies, sexualities, violence, or war.


1970 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-82
Author(s):  
Khaled Rajeh

The emergence of postcolonial feminism in the late 20th century ushered in new debates surrounding the theory of agency and women in non-Western countries. In feminist discourse, agency can be defined as a woman’s capacity for individualized choice and action, free from the invasive influence or coercion of any other individual.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanaseelen Rajasakran ◽  
Santhidran Sinnappan ◽  
Thinavan Periyayya ◽  
Sridevi Balakrishnan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose and develop a distinct perspective from the consumer culture theory in the context of Muslim consumers, marketing and the feminist theory. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a critical review of the literature for insights into the consumer culture theory in the context of Muslim consumers, Islamic marketing paradigm and the feminist theory. Findings The study suggests that scholars in the area of marketing may consider drawing on the theory of Islamic consumer culture, film and feminist theory. This theory can be used as a platform to understand the Muslim mind and the related cultural traits to create greater engagement and interest in Malaysian horror genres among local and international audience. The Malaysian local horror genres currently have an interesting blend of Islam, local culture and gender biases addressing the universal concept of good against the evil forces, and this has the potential of offering new experiences to especially international audiences. Research limitations/implications This study is purely theory-based and is aimed at knowledge development in this field of Islamic consumer culture. It also invites academics to engage in scholarly activities toward theory building in this area. Practical implications The study provides directions for areas of possible future research in Islamic marketing, consumer culture and film studies. Social implications This study intends to broaden the research efforts in Islamic consumer culture marketing in terms of innovative ways to serve this growing Muslim market. Originality/value This study contributes to the discipline by providing new perspectives in Islamic consumer culture inquiry in the context of film studies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 670-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley Skeggs

In the telling of the inscription of feminism into sociology, both space and time intervene. Institutionally some departments appear to be at the vanguard of feminist thought, others, as if feminism never happened. These uneven manifestations tell a story about people, place, power and struggle. Even feminism itself operates on different temporalities: while many feminists now ‘forget’ to address ‘woman’ as an object of their research, using instead debates from feminist theory about gender, life itself or relations, others continuing to generate important information on where women are and what they do. The gap between these two positions of object/no object is vast. Yet the perception of objects/subjects and their recognition through citation is central to the achievement of feminism within academia and this is where the struggle continues, as this paper shows. By showing how feminism has impacted upon sociology in a variety of ways: institutionally, theoretically, methodologically, politically, practically, it unearths how many different struggles on many different fronts continue. Rather than accepting the defeat or dilution of feminism this paper shows how feminism has inscribed some of the darkest and deepest recesses of sociology. But also how this is an achievement reliant upon repetition and attrition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-113
Author(s):  
Bec Wonders

The second wave of feminism saw a surge in women's publishing that resulted in a women-controlled communications infrastructure within feminist periodicals. As a result of women actively contributing to the ‘letters to the editor’ pages, second wave periodicals offer rich source material for tracing the development of feminist theory. Indicative of an invested and participatory counterpublic of readers, second wave periodicals also reveal the internal disagreements and debates which feminists were grappling with during the 1970s and 1980s. Spare rib, Trouble & strife, Revolutionary/radical feminist newsletter and Outwrite were feminist periodicals that all published coverage of the 1982 Lebanese war, and discussed the subsequent implications of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Conflict over how correctly to cover the disagreements, both editorially and ideologically, dominated the correspondence pages of these periodicals. However, mediating conflict was uniquely suited to the medium of a periodical, as it allowed for less outspoken women to see themselves as contributors and add to a plurality of opinion. The visual mapping of these debates by means of Social Network Analysis highlights how the circulation of feminist periodicals enabled communication in the form of a webbed network of debate. The periodical format, and in particular the letters pages, offered a much-needed forum for criticism and disagreement to play out, and in turn the advancement of feminist discourse. As historical source material, they tell the story of a complex and diverse movement, unsettling the notion of a neat chronology of distinct decades of feminist history.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anne Else

<p>This thesis centres on a problem that stands at the heart of feminist theory: how women may come to understand themselves as speaking subjects located within historically specific, discursive social structures, to question those structures aloud, and to seek to change them. It combines self-narrative, feminist theory and writing practice to make sense of a body of published work which I produced between 1984 and 1999, with a consistent focus on some form of gendered discourse, by setting it in its personal, historical, and theoretical contexts. Although the thesis is built around published work, it is not primarily about results or outcomes, but rather about a set of active historical processes. Taking the form of a spirally structured critical autobiography spanning five and a half decades, it traces how one voice of what I have termed feminist oppositional imagining has emerged and taken its own worded shape. First, it constructs a double story of coming to writing and coming to feminism, in order to explore the formation of a writing subject and show the critical importance of the connections between subjectivity and oppositional imagining, and to highlight the need to find ways of producing knowledge which do not rely on the notion of the detached observer. Secondly, in a deliberate shift of form and focus, it steps back to canvass the historical context for the work I produced in response to the discursive shift that has become known as the New Right. It argues that by usefully enforcing a focus on the necessity of a commitment to social justice and human interdependence, this shift spurred the development of a feminist discourse, centred on unpaid work, which is capable of understanding and countering New Right perspectives on what it means to be a human being and to live in human society.</p>


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