From ferguson@philos.umass.edu Sun Jun 9 02:17:09 1996 Date: Sun, 09 Jun 1996 04:15:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Ann Ferguson Subject: Re: MATFEM digest 67 <"matfem@csf.colorado.edu"@Jun> To: matfem@csf.colorado.edu G.V. Palazollo recently wrote: > > I have just joined the group and read the introduction, and consequently I > have a few questions. > > (1) I was wondering if someone could elaborate on the differences between > "postmodern cultural materialism" and just-plain-materialism as used in the > introduction. (I suspect that most of my feminist education was of the > "identity-politics" kind.) I would argue that there is no general definition of the distinction bewtween these two approaches. Just as Judith Butler writes in her intro article in her anthology with Joan Scott , the tactic of defining a tendency and then critiquing it is itself a political move which may essentialize what is only a cluster of things with more like family resemblances (a la Wittgenstein) than necessary and sufficient conditions. In any case many cultural materialist approaches highlight the way that language or discourse plays a productive or constructive role in creating knowledge, subjects of knowledge, etc. and problematize the starting position of the author of a claim as itself constructed in language and invested, interested, etc. > (2) Are there any good introductory sources on the differences between > materialist feminism and other forms of feminism, particularly Marxist & > socialist feminism (the distinction eludes me, I fear)? With some > trepidation I confess I had thought that materialist feminism was a nuveau > term Marxist feminism, but it would seem that I am mistaken. The reason your post hasnt been answered may in part be because there is no clear distinction between Marxist and socialist feminism and the more au courant materialist feminism except that MF and SF have gone out of style as self-descriptions for many people since the downfall of so many state socialist societies. But those taking Rosemary Hennessy's book as a paradigm of materialist feminism would insist that the earlier MF and SF positions didnt adequately theorize discourse and discursive positions and practice as key to understanding the production of knowledge. In a way, you could almost take Hennessy's reading of materialist feminism to be a translation of Althusser's notion that " the subject is constructed/interpellated by ideology" into "the subject is constructed/interpellated by discourse". > (3) How is social constuctionism incompatible with materialist feminism? Or > have I misread the introduction? I am particularly interested in this > because the "social construction of technology" predominates in my > department. > ++ Again, whether social constructionism and materialist feminism are compatible or not depends on what bone you are picking and what you are contrasting "social constructionism" to. If to essentialism, then SC and MatFem are not at odds, but if you are critiquing a kind of sociologistic or psychologistic social constructionism that assumes a rational self interested subject who exists before language and is socially constructed by accepting rules of behavior as means to his/her ends, then many MatFems would object that no such autonomous subject can be presupposed. Do others on the list agree with my distinctions? I stress that this is my attempt to make sense of things not necessarily the only answer to these questions. Best, Ann Ferguson Womens Studies and Philosophy UMass/Amherst, Amherst MA 01003 ferguson@philos.umass.edu > > > ------------------------------ > > End of MATFEM Digest 67 > *********************** > From ingrac@Sage.EDU Sun Jun 9 14:43:03 1996 Date: Sun, 9 Jun 1996 16:40:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Chrys Ingraham To: Ann Ferguson Subject: Re: MATFEM digest 67 To all: The "long-awaited" ;) anthology on materialist feminism will be sent off to the publisher within the next couple of weeks. It will include an introduction which will attempt to clarify distinctions among the areas you've been discussing, an archive of early works defining the area, several previously published ongoing works, and several new essays. We're also trying to put together a bibliography for it that will act as a resource. We'll keep you posted on progress. The title is Materialist/Marxist Feminism: A Reader, edited by Rosemary Hennessy And Chrys Ingraham and forthcoming from Routledge. It will be oversized and will be about 450pp. in paperback. Chrys Ingraham Russell Sage College Sociology Troy, NY 12180 ingrac@sage.edu From ri091162@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx Mon Jun 10 19:18:31 1996 Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 20:16:27 -0600 (CST) From: BARAJAS V OSCAR I To: matfem@csf.colorado.edu Subject: help In-Reply-To: I am so sory bothering the entire list on this issue but i have been receiving messages from you even after i signed off last year. I hope some one out there can help me signing off. Thank You. Oscar Isaac Barajas Velasco ri091162@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx From mthomps@bgnet.bgsu.edu Mon Jun 24 09:47:39 1996 Date: Mon, 24 Jun 1996 11:47:34 -0400 (EDT) From: mary thompson Subject: upcoming conference (fwd) To: matfem@csf.colorado.edu THE STYLE CONFERENCE, to be held July 25-28, 1997 in Bowling Green, Ohio, will assemble people working in feminist and cultural studies, postmodernist and queer theory, design, media, and other fields to discuss the new scholarship on style. We hope to provide a unique interdisciplinary forum that will also incorporate the major critiques of that work. Our notion of style is primarily bodily and performative, but we invite consideration of a wide variety of material, cultural, and discursive experiences around the theme of Theorizing Style: Pleasures and Dangers. Potential topic areas include: performing style, age and generation, styling desire, fashion/fun/guilt, academic styles, appropriation/commodification/exploitation. Proposals welcomed in any format: individual papers, preconstituted sessions, workshops, roundtable, film and video, performance, multimedia presentations. Deadline for 250 word abstracts: December 1, 1996. Further information: Laura Stemple Mumford. lsmumford@aol.com (608) 238-3612 or Ellen E. Berry eberry@bgnet.bgsu.edu, (419) 372-2620