Sammanfattning
An important camp within the emerging field of resistance studies has been characterised by a tendency to study and theorise matters of culture, language, and discourse at the expense of matter itself. For researchers interested in feminist resistance, feminist new materialism – with its focus on the entanglements of ‘natureculture’, matter, the body, sexual differ- ence, agency, and change – might appear to offer productive theoretical tools that can help shift the focus towards materiality. Through a reading of selected works of influential feminist new materialists, this article crit- ically analyses how resistance can be articulated within the theoretical scope of feminist new materialism. While the authors agree with the iden- tified gains of a material turn within resistance studies and in relation to feminist resistance, it is shown that new materialism is of little help in this regard. In a first step, it is argued that the new materialist attempt to un- dermine the modern and postmodern forms of Cartesian dualism ends up reproducing its fundamental premise through the equation of difference and independence on the one hand, and of identity and unity on the oth- er. In a second step, the authors argue that the failed attempt to challenge Cartesian dualism gives rise to two theoretical problems with important implications for feminist resistance. On the one hand, in its efforts to tran- scend older versions of materiality as unalterable and constant, feminist new materialism comes to privilege change and the register of historical specificity at the expense of limits and the register of the transhistorical, in a way that disguises resistance rooted in the relatively stable condition of vulnerability. On the other hand, in its attempt to supersede the differencebetween nature and humanity by granting agency to matter, feminist new materialism is led to sacrifice intentional action in a way that undermines core aspects of the emerging field of resistance studies.
Originalspråk | engelska |
---|---|
Sidor (från-till) | 54-83 |
Tidskrift | Journal of Resistance Studies |
Volym | 4 |
Nummer | 2 |
Status | Published - 2018 |
Externt publicerad | Ja |
Ämnesklassifikation (UKÄ)
- Historia
- Sociologi (exklusive socialt arbete, socialpsykologi och socialantropologi)
- Genusstudier
Fria nyckelord
- New materialism
- Marxism
- Feminist theory
- The Concept of Abstraction
- Resistance studies
- Cartesianism