"Woman" and the Political

Catalog description

Feminist theorists have critiqued the canonical works of political theory as implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) premised on the exclusion of “woman” and the “feminine.” The “feminine” (private, domestic, passive) has been seen to be in opposition to the “masculine” political sphere (active, public, rational). In this course we will read works from the canon of political theory alongside feminist critiques. The question we will consider is: how do feminist critiques of the absence of “woman” and the “feminine” in discourses of the political affect our ideas of not only the private and public, but also those of citizenship, equality, freedom, the individual, and community? In addition to feminist critiques of political theory, we will also be attentive to internal debates within feminisms, especially with reference to women of color feminisms and queer theory. Readings may include Kimberlé Crenshaw, Carole Pateman, Chandra Mohanty, Bonnie Honig, Judith Butler, Plato, Rousseau, Locke, and Marx.