Anthropologija in feminizem – FDV

Aims and content of the course

The issues of gender and equality have entered forcefully in the discipline since the 1970s, following the work of Edwin Ardener and Sherry Ortner, as well as numerous ethnographic studies, such as the ones by Marilyn Strathern. Of course, “feminist anthropology” already enters the academic discourse in the late 1960s, but it is only more recently that the issues related to gender are put in the context of power (following Foucault) and the broader academic and political context.

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the history and theory of the gender studies in anthropology (“feminisms of the first, second and third generation”, “feminist anthropology”, “cyberfeminism”, “socialist feminism”). This will be done from the early work(s) of the 19^th-century scholars (Morgan, Engels), through works of Mead in particular, and into the insights opened by Collier and Yanagisako, to the writings of Haraway, Moore, Stathern, and Segal. Non-anthropologists, such as some French authors (especially associated with the so-called l’ecriture feminine) shall also be considered, as well as authors and artists who work with feminism and new technologies, such as Stone, VNS Matrix, Sollfrank, and Plant. Essentially, the lectures will cross-cut through several different academic disciplines, using also works of some Slovenian scholars.

Special emphasis will be put on the contextualization of power in the contemporary world, as well as on the gender as a means of representing otherness (for example, through the examples of gendered bodies in both Western and African contexts). The outline and the literature given below should be understood only as points of departure – they could be changed or amended, based on students’ specific interests, as well as taking into account books or texts that could be published in the meantime.

General outline of lectures:

1. Introduction: Some key concepts in anthropology and feminism.

2. “Feminist anthropology” – fact or fantasy?

3. The politics of anthropology of gender: bell hooks and beyond.

4. Anthropology of the body – images & representations.

5. Gendered challenges: Women, politics and power in the cyberspace.

6. Why feminism? – Lynn Segal and the “socialist feminism”.

Some references [books]:

Bahovec, Eva (ur.) (1993), Od ženskih študij k feministični teoriji.

Butler, Judith (1990), Gender Trouble.

De Lauretis, Teresa (1984), Alice Doesn’t.

De Lauretis, Teresa (1994), The Practice of Love.

Grosz, Elizabeth (1995), Space, Time, and Perversion.

Haraway, Donna (1985), “A manifesto for cyborgs”.

Haraway, Donna (1991), Simians, Cyborgs, and Women.

Marković, Igor (ur.) (1999), Cyberfeminizam. [Centar za ženske studije, Zagreb.]

Moore, Henrietta L. (1988), Feminism and Anthropology.

Moore, Henrietta L. (1994), A Passion for Difference.

Plant, Sadie (1995), Zeros and ones.

Riley, Denise (1988), Am I that name?

Segal, Lynn (1999), Why Feminism?

Strathern, Marilyn (1988), The Gender of the Gift.

Strathern, Marilyn (1991), Partial Connections.

(It would be particularly helpful if the students could read Bahovec, Butler and Riley before the beginning of the course.)

articles:

Bahovec, Eva, “O feminizmu in psihoanalizi: Onstran problema poimenovanja” (Problemi-Eseji 1-2, 1992).

Bošković, Aleksandar, “Out of Africa: Images of women in anthropology and popular culture” (Etnolog 11, 2001).

Downs, Laura Lee, “If ‘Woman’ is Just an Empty Category, Then Why Am I Afraid to Walk Alone at Night? Identity Politics Meets the Postmodern Subject” [w. discussion with Joan Scott] (Comparative Studies of Society and History, 1993).

Findlay, Deborah, “Discovering Sex: Medical Sceince, Feminism and Intersexuality” (Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 32.1, 1995).

Haukanes, Haldis, “Anthropological debates on gender and the post-communist transformation” (NORA 9.1, 2001).

Levine, Philippa, “Orientalist Sociology and the Creation of Colonial Sexualities” (Feminist Review 65, 2000).

Lorber, Judith, “Using gender to undo gender: A feminist degendering movement” (Feminist Theory 1.1, 2000).

Ule, Mirjana, “Ali je feminizem še žensko gibanje?” (Problemi 3, 1988).

Zaviršek, Darja, “Benettonova telesa” (Revija 4000, October 1998).

Evaluation:

The students will attend the lectures and participate in seminars. In the end of the course [by the end of June], they should produce an essay (25-30 double-spaced typed pages) on a topic agreed with the lecturer.