Language, Discourse, Society
4 total works
This collection of essays examines the feminist perspective in relation to specific works of literature, criticism and film. In some of the essays the author looks at a novel or film through theory, taking a particular issue or assumption in theoretical discourse as a magnifying glass in order to refocus the reading around questions of gender representation. In other works, the reading of a fictional, cinematic or critical text provides the occasion to articulate a theoretical problem or to engage in a current criticial debate about feminism and the limitations of "sexual difference". Her book is aimed at every feminist in need of theoretical ammunition and for every theorist in need of feminist enlightenment. Teresa de Lauretis is the author of other feminist studies including "Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema" and is the editor of "Feminist Studies/Criticial Studies".
The essays in this collection represent very recent developments in feminist research and writing in the areas of history, scientific discourse, literary criticism, and cultural theory. The volume's overarching concern is the relation of feminist politics to critical practice, and the specific relation of feminism to other critical theories. Contributions by scholars and writers who are also active in professional fields such as publishing, psychotherapy, and community work provide a rich context of debate; issues of particular relevance to the critical practice of women of colour resonate with other questions and tensions within white and mainstream feminist criticism, suggesting new interpretations and revisions of original feminist conceptions of subjectivity, identity, and difference.
Teresa De Lauretis makes a bold and orginal argument for the renewed relevance of the Freudian theory of drives, through close readings of texts ranging from cinema and literature to psychoanalysis and cultural theory.