Political Science 590-01     Professor Hawkesworth

                                                Office Hours: Mon. 3 – 4:30

                                                  (and by appointment)

                                                3^rd 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. complete all reading assignments by the dates specified below;
2. use the reading as the basis for informed class participation;
3. write and present one seminar paper;
4. complete a semester research paper;
5. 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.    

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    15%

      Seminar paper and presentation  25%

      Research paper    35%

      Final Exam    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. 
 


1. 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 


2. 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 


3. Can the Project be Sustained?: Postmodern Challenges
 


April 24  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. 


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 Ren�� 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. 


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. 3^rd 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.  


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. 


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. 


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      York:  Columbia University Press. 


Nicholson, Linda. 1999. The play of reason: from the modern to the postmodern.  Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell

      University Press. 


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      Prentice Hall International. 


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Oliver, Kelly and Marilyn Pearsall. 1998.  Feminist interpretations of Friedrich Nietzsche. University Park,

      Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. 


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      Routledge. 


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Pateman, Carol and Elizabeth Grosz, 1986. Feminist Challenges: Social and Political Theory.  Boston:

      Northeastern University Press. 


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      Press. 


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      feminism.  London: New York : Routledge. 


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      State University of New York Press. 


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      State University Press. 


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      University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press. 


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      Pennsylvania Press. 


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