Draws on the work of a diverse group of theorists in order to illustrate and construct a new feminist conception of power.

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory provides a rich overview of the analytical frameworks and theoretical concepts that feminist theorists have developed to analyze the known world. Featuring leading feminist theorists from diverse regions of the globe, this collection delves into forty-nine subject areas, demonstrating the complexity of feminist challenges to established knowledge, while also engaging areas of contestation within feminist theory. Demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature of feminist theory, the chapters offer innovative analyses of topics central to social and political science, cultural studies and humanities, discourses associated with medicine and science, and issues in contemporary critical theory that have been transformed through feminist theorization. The handbook identifies limitations of key epistemic assumptions that inform traditional scholarship and shows how theorizing from women's and men's lives has profound effects on the conceptualization of central categories, whether the field of analysis is aesthetics, biology, cultural studies, development, economics, film studies, health, history, literature, politics, religion, science studies, sexualities, violence, or war.

In this updated text of sexual politics, bell hooks argues that the contemporary feminist movement must establish a new direction for the future. A leading cultural critic, she contends that feminism has not succeeded in creating a mass movement against sexism because the foundation of the women's movement has not fully accounted for the complexity and diversity of female experience. In order to fulfil its revolutionary potential, feminist theory must begin by consciously transforming its own definition to encompass the lives and ideas of women on the margin. This new edition includes an original preface by the author that brings it up to date.

The path-breaking Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories is an accessible, multidisciplinary insight into the complex field of feminist thought. The Encyclopedia contains over 500 authoritative entries commissioned from an international team of contributors and includes clear, concise and provocative explanations of key themes and ideas. Each entry contains cross references and a bibliographic guide to further reading; over 50 biographical entries provide readers with a sense of how the theories they encounter have developed out of the lives and situations of their authors.

Toward a Feminist Theory of the State presents Catharine MacKinnon’s powerful analysis of politics, sexuality, and the law from the perspective of women. Using the debate over Marxism and feminism as a point of departure, MacKinnon develops a theory of gender centered on sexual subordination and applies it to the state. The result is an informed and compelling critique of inequality and a transformative vision of a direction for social change.

Defying traditional definitions of public and private as gendered terms, and broadening discussion of women’s writing in relation to feminist work done in other fields, this study addresses American women’s poetry from the seventeenth to late-twentieth century. Engaging the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, psychology, history, political theory, religious culture, cultural studies, and poetics, this study provides entry into some of the founding feminist discussions across disciplines, moving beyond current scholarship to pursue an interpretation of feminism’s defining interests and assumptions in the context of women’s writing. The author emphasizes and explores how women’s writing expresses their active participation in community and civic life, emerging from and shaping a woman’s selfhood as constituted through relationships, not only on the personal level, but as forming community commitments. This distinctive formation of the self finds expression in women’s voices and other poetic forms of expression, with the aesthetic power of poetry itself bringing different arenas of human experience to bear on each other in mutual interrogation and reflection. Women poets have addressed the public world, directly or through a variety of poetic structures and figures, and in doing so they have defined and expressed specific forms of selfhood engaged in and committed to communal life.

The exciting possibilities of a Foucauldian approach to issues of the subject and identity, especially as they relate to sex and the body, are detailed in several of the essays collected here. Despite the possibilities, however, Foucault's approach has raised serious questions about an equally crucial area of feminist thought - politics. Some feminist critics of Foucault have argued that his deconstruction of the concept "woman" also deconstructs the possibility of a feminist politics. Several essays explore the implications of this deconstruction for feminist politics and suggest that a Foucauldian feminist politics is not viable. Overall, this collection illustrates the range of interest Foucault's thought has generated among feminist thinkers and both the advantages and liabilities of his approach for the development of feminist theory and politics.

Ce volume contient l’intervention de Margaret Atwood, « Genesis of The Handmaid’s Tale and Role of the Historical Notes » et la table ronde avec l’auteur, lors du colloque de Rouen du 16 novembre 1998. Sept textes inédits du colloque de Paris III du 14 novembre 1998 et du colloque de Rouen du 16 novembre 1998 mettent en relief la multiplicité des approches possibles de The Handmaid’s Tale : la vision de l’auteur, l’histoire des idées, la psychanalyse, l’étude des thèmes et des genres littéraires s’y succèdent et soulignent la richesse de ce roman multiforme.

Feminist Theory Reader is an anthology of classic and contemporary works of feminist theory, organized around the goal of providing both local and global perspectives.

The third edition of the Feminist Theory Reader anthologizes the important classical and contemporary works of feminist theory within a multiracial transnational framework. This edition includes 16 new essays; the editors have organized the readings into four sections, which challenge the prevailing representation of feminist movements as waves. Introductory essays at the beginning of each section lay out the framework that brings the readings together and provide historical and intellectual context. Instructors who have adopted the book can email SalesHSS@taylorandfrancis.com to receive test questions associated with the readings. Please include your school and location (state/province/county/country) in the email. Now available for the first time in eBook format 978-0-203-59831-3.