Political Science 590-01 Professor Hawkesworth Office Hours: Mon. 3 – 4:30 (and by appointment) 3rd floor, Eagleton Institute 932-9384, ext. 223 Gender and Political Theory This course will explore how gender is used by feminist theorists as an analytical category both to re-read and critique the Western canon in political philosophy and to develop new substantive political theories. It will begin with a discussion of the complexities of efforts to use gender as an analytic category that encompasses sex, sexuality, sexual identification, gender roles, gender stereotypes, gender consciousness, gender identification, gender symbolism, reifications of difference, modes of social organization, and power distributions. Then the course will proceed by examining some of the earliest efforts of feminist theorists to unmask androcentrism in philosophical works. The second half of the course will take up more recent feminist efforts to theorize political works and political life. At the end of the term, we will consider arguments raised by postcolonial and postmodern thinkers that political theory is an inherently hegemonic project incompatible with global feminist principles. Course Requirements The quality of any seminar is a direct result of the level of preparation and degree of participation of class members. In this seminar, each student will be expected to: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) complete all reading assignments by the dates specified below; use the reading as the basis for informed class participation; write and present one seminar paper; complete a semester research paper; complete a final exam. The Seminar Paper One objective of the course is to help students develop their analytical abilities. The seminar paper is a means to this end. A good seminar paper involves exposition, analysis, and critique of a central theme in the assigned reading. A great seminar paper adds to the exposition, analysis, and critique, a consideration of the author’s likely response to the critique and a rejoinder that demonstrates the validity of the original criticism despite the author’s predicted objections. Each student will be expected to write one seminar paper (10-12 pages) and to present and defend it in class. Students must commit to a seminar topic during the second week of class. The seminar paper is due on the day that the class discusses the topic that the student has chosen. 1 The Research Paper Feminist political theory is a burgeoning field, which challenges us to reassess much that has been taken for granted in traditional political theory. The purpose of the research paper is to encourage each student to investigate a topic of interest, explore gendered presuppositions that inform political theorists’ treatment of the topic, thereby making an original contribution to the field of feminist political theory. Each student should discuss his/her chosen topic with me prior to spring break. Grading In calculating grades for the course, student performance will be assessed according to the following weighting scheme: Class participation Seminar paper and presentation Research paper Final Exam 15% 25% 35% 25% Required Reading The following works are required reading for the course. The books are available at the Douglass College Bookstore. Jean B. Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman Wendy Brown, Manhood and Politics Christine Di Stefano, Configurations of Masculinity Linda Zerilli, Signifying Woman Iris Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference Andrea Nye, Philosophia Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics Jana Sawicki, Disciplining Foucault: Feminism, Power, and the Body Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, Creatures of Prometheus: Gender and the Politics of Technology Jacqui Stevens, Reproducing the State Patricia Hill Collins, Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice Mary E. John, Discrepant Locations: Feminism, Theory and Postcolonial Histories Semester Calendar January 16 Is Political Theory Gendered? January 23 On the Use of Gender as an Analytical Category Joan Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” The American Historical Review 91(5):1053-1074 Sandra Harding, “Gender: Individual, Structural, Symbolic—and Always Asymmetric” in The Science Question in Feminism, pp. 52-57. Donna Haraway, “‘Gender’ for a Marxist Dictionary: The Sexual Politics of a Word,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, pp. 127-148. Mary Hawkesworth, “Confounding Gender,” Signs 22(3): 649-685. 2 I. Critiques of the Canon January 30 Jean Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman February 6 Wendy Brown, Manhood and Politics February 13 Christine Di Stefano, Configurations of Masculinity February 20 Linda Zerilli, Signifying Woman II. Revisioning the Political February 27 Iris Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference March 6 Andrea Nye, Philosophia March 13 Spring Break March 20 Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics March 27 Jana Sawicki, Disciplining Foucault: Feminism, Power, and the Body April 3 Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, Creatures of Prometheus: Gender and the Politics of Technology April 10 Jacqui Stevens, Reproducing the State April 17 Patricia Hill Collins, Fighting Words: Black Women and the Search for Justice III. April 24 Can the Project be Sustained?: Postmodern Challenges Mary E. John, Discrepant Locations: Feminism, Theory and Postcolonial Histories Suggestions for further reading: Ackerly, Brooke A. 2000. Political theory and feminist social criticism. Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Ahmed, Sara. 1998. Differences that matter : feminist theory and postmodernism. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. Allen, Amy. 1999. The power of feminist theory: domination, resistance, solidarity. Boulder, Colo.; Oxford: Westview Press. Bar-on, Bat-Ami. 1994. Engendering origins : critical feminist readings in Plato and Aristotle. Albany: State University of New York Press. Bar-on, Bat-Ami. 1994. Modern engendering : critical feminist readings in modern Western philosophy. Albany : State University of New York Press. Barrett, Michelle and Anne Phillips. (eds.) 1992. Destabilizing theory : contemporary feminist debates. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press. 3 Barrett, Michelle. 1980. Women’s Oppression Today: Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis. London: Verso. Beauvoir, Simone de. 1961. The Second Sex. New York:Bantom Books. Bergoffen, Debra B. 1997. The philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir : gendered phenomenologies, erotic generosities. Albany: State University of New York Press. Bianchi, Emanuela. 1999. Is feminist philosophy philosophy? Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press. Bordo, Susan. 1999. Feminist interpretations of René Descartes. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Braidotti, Rosi. 1991. Patterns of dissonance : a study of women in contemporary philosophy. New York : Routledge. Brown, Wendy. 1995. States of Injury : power and freedom in late modernity. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press. Buker, Eloise. 1999. Talking feminist politics : conversations on law, science, and the postmodern. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Burke, Carolyn. Naomi Schor, and Margaret Whitford 1994. Engaging with Irigaray : feminist philosophy and modern European thought. New York : Columbia University Press. Butler, Judith and Joan Scott. (eds.) 1992. Feminists theorize the political. New York : Routledge, 1992. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge. Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies that Matter. New York:Routledge. Connell, Robert. 1987. Gender and Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Cornell, Drucilla. 1998. At the Heart of Freedom. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Cornell, Drucilla. 1995. The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography, and Sexual Harassment. New York: Routledge. Cornell, Drucilla. 1991. Beyond Accommodation: Ethical Feminism, Deconstruction, and the Law. New York: Routledge. Dean, Jodi. 1996. Solidarity of strangers : feminism after identity politics. Berkeley : University of California Press. Dean, Jodi. (ed.). 1997. Feminism and the new democracy: re-siting the political. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage. Delphy, Christine. 1984. Close to Home: A Materialist Analysis of Women’s Oppression. Amherst.: University of Massachusetts Press. Deutscher, Penelope. 1997. Yielding gender: feminism, deconstruction, and the history of philosophy. London; New York: Routledge. Disch, Lisa Jane. 1994. Hannah Arendt and the limits of philosophy. Ithaca : Cornell University Press. 4 Di Stefano, Christine and Nancy Hirschman. 1996. Revisioning the political : feminist reconstructions of traditional concepts in western political theory. Boulder, CO : Westview Press. Donovan, Josephine. Feminist theory : the intellectual traditions. 3rd Ed. New York: Continuum. Eisenstein, Zillah. 1979. Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism. New York: Monthly Review Press. Elam, Diane. 1994. Feminism and deconstruction. London ; New York: Routledge. Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1997. Real politics : at the center of everyday life . Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press. Evans, Judith, Jill Hills, Karen Hunt, Elizabeth Meehan, Tessa ten Teusscher, Ursula Vogel, and Goergina Weylan. 1986. Feminism and Political Theory. London: Sage. Feder, Ellen K., Mary C. Rawlinson, and Emily Zakin (eds.). 1997. Derrida and feminism: recasting the question of woman. New York : Routledge. Fergusan, Kathy. 1993. The man question : visions of subjectivity in feminist theory. Berkeley : University of California Press. Fermon, Nicole. 1997. Domesticating passions : Rousseau, woman, and nation. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. Flax, Jane. 1990. Thinking fragments : psychoanalysis, feminism, and postmodernism in the contemporary West. Berkeley : University of California Press. Fraser, Nancy. 1988. Unruly practices : power, discourse, and gender in contemporary social theory. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press. Freeland, Cynthia A. 1998. Feminist interpretations of Aristotle. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Gatens, Moira. 1996. Imaginary bodies : ethics, power, and corporeality. London; New York: Routledge. Gould, Carol. 1984. Beyond Domination: New Perspectives on Women and Philosophy. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allenheld. Grace, Vctoria. 2000. Baudrillard's challenge : a feminist reading. London; New York: Routledge. Grant, Judith. 1993. Fundamental feminism : contesting the core concepts of feminist theory. New York: Routledge. Green, Karen. 1995. The woman of reason : feminism, humanism, and political thought. .New York : Continuum. Grewal, Interpal and Caren Kaplan. 1994. Scattered hegemonies : postmodernity and transnational feminist practices. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Grimshaw, Jean. 1986. Philosophy and Feminist Thinking. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Grosz, Elizabeth. 1994. Volatile Bodies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Haraway, Donna. 1991. Symians, Cyborgs, and Women. New York: Routledge. 5 Hartsock, Nancy. 1984. Money, Sex, and Power. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Hawkesworth, Mary. 1990. Beyond Oppression: Feminist Theory and Political Strategy. New York: Continuum. Hekman, Susan. 1996. Feminist interpretations of Michel Foucault. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Hirschmann, Nancy. 1992. Rethinking obligation : a feminist method for political theory. Ithaca : Cornell University Press. Holland, Nancy J. 1997. Feminist interpretations of Jacques Derrida. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Holland, Nancy J. 1990. Is women's philosophy possible? Savage, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Honig, Bonnie. 1995. Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press. Inglis, Laura Lyn and Peter K. Steinfeld. 2000. Old dead white men's philosophy. Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books. Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Speculum of the Other Woman. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Irigaray, Luce. 1985. This Sex Which Is Not One. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Jacobson, Anne Jaap. 2000. Feminist interpretations of David Hume. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Jaggar, Alison. 1983. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Allenheld. Kourany, Janet, 1997. Philosophy in a feminist voice: critiques and reconstructions. Princeton, N.J : Princeton University Press. Landes, Joan. 1998. Feminism, the Public and the Private. Oxford:Oxford University Press. Laslett, Barbara, Johanna Brenner, and Yassim Arat. 1995. Rethinking the Political: Gender, Resistance and the State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Leon, Celine and Sylvia Walsh. 1997. Feminist interpretations of Søren Kierkegaard. University Park, Pa. Pennsylvania State University Press. Lorraine, Tamsin. 1999. Irigaray & Deleuze: experiments in visceral philosophy. Ithaca, N.Y.; London: Cornell University Press. MacKinnon, Catharine. 1987. Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Mahowald, Mary. 1978. Philosophy of women: Classical to Current Concepts. Indiana: Hackett Publishing. McNay, Lois. 1993. Foucault and feminism : power, gender, and the self. Boston : Northeastern University Press. McNay, Lois. 2000. Gender and agency : reconfiguring the subject in feminist and social theory. Polity Press and Blackwell Publishers. 6 Meehan, Johanna. 1995. Feminists read Habermas : gendering the subject of discourse. NewYork : Routledge. Mills, Patricia Jagentowicz. 1996. Feminist interpretations of G.W.F. Hegel. University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press. Mortensen, Ellen. 1994. The feminine and nihilism : Luce Irigaray with Nietzsche and Heidegger. Oslo, Norway : Scandinavian University Press. Murphy, Julien. 1999. Feminist interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Narayan, Uma and Sandra Harding. 2000. Decentering the center: philosophy for a multicultural, postcolonial, and feminist world. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press. Nicholson, Linda. 1986. Gender and History: The Limits of Social theory in the Age of the Family. New York: Columbia University Press. Nicholson, Linda. 1999. The play of reason: from the modern to the postmodern. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. Nye, Andrea. 1995. Philosophy & feminism : at the border. New York : Twayne Publishers ; London : Prentice Hall International. Nye, Andrea. 1988. Feminist theory and the Philosophies of Man. New York: Routledge. O’Brien, Mary. 1981. The Politics of Reproduction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. O’Neill, Maggie. 1999. Adorno, culture and feminism. London; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. Okin, Susan Moller. 1979. Women in Western Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Oliver, Kelly and Marilyn Pearsall. 1998. Feminist interpretations of Friedrich Nietzsche. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Oliver, Kelly. 1995. Womanizing Nietzsche : philosophy's relation to the "feminine". New York: Routledge. Osborne, Martha. 1979. Women in Western Thought. New York: Random House. Pateman, Carol and Elizabeth Grosz, 1986. Feminist Challenges: Social and Political Theory. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Pateman, Carol. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Phillips, Anne. 1993. Democracy and difference. University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press. Ramazano*glu , Carline. 1993. Up against Foucault : explorations of some tensions between Foucault and feminism. London: New York : Routledge. Ring, Jennifer. 1991. Modern political theory and contemporary feminism : a dialectical analysis. Albany: State University of New York Press. Saxonhouse, Arlene. 1985. Women in the History of Political Thought. New York: Praeger. 7 Schott, Robin May. 1997. Feminist interpretations of Immanuel Kant. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Shanley, Mary Lyndon and Carole Pateman. (eds.) 1991. Feminist interpretations and political theory. University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press. Shanley, Mary Lyndon and Uma Narayan. 1999. Reconstructing Political theory: Feminist Perspectives. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Siegfried, Charlene Haddock. 1996. Pragmatism and feminism : reweaving the social fabric. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. Spelman, Elizabeth. 1988. Inessential Woman. Boston: Beacon. Spender, Dale. 1983. Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them. London: Ark Paperbacks. Trask, Hunani K. 1986. Eros and Power: the Promise of Feminist Theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Tuana, Nancy and Rosemarie Tong. 1995. Feminism and philosophy : essential readings in theory, reinterpretation, and application. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. Tuana, Nancy. 1994. Feminist Interpretations of Plato. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. Vetterling Braggin, Mary, Frederick Elliston, and Jane English. 1977. Feminism and Philosophy. Totowa, N.J.; Littlefield and Adams. Weeks, Kathi. 1998. Constituting feminist subjects. Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press. Weir, Alison. 1996. Sacrificial logics : feminist theory and the critique of identity. New York : Routledge. Weiss, Penny A. 1997. Conversations with feminism: political theory and practice. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. Wollstonecraft, Mary. 1975 [1792]. Vindication of the Rights of Woman. New York: W.W. Norton. Woolf, Virginia. 1938. Three Guineas. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Young, Iris Marion. 1997. Intersecting voices: dilemmas of gender, political philosophy, and policy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Zita, Jacquelyn, N. 1998. Body talk : philosophical reflections on sex and gender. New York: Columbia University Press. 8