Fall 2004
email: rbernst@fas.harvard.edu
Phone: 617.495.9634
To schedule an appointment
outside regular Office Hours, please contact Stephanie
Gauchel (sgauchel@fas.harvard.edu)
Transnational
Feminist Thought
This
course introduces some of the most urgent issues, questions, and problems
currently under debate among feminists and theorists of gender. In particular, we focus on women’s
experience of, and feminist responses to, a globalized economy. As we pursue this inquiry, we ask not so
much, “What do feminists think?” but more, “How
do women and men around the world generate and transmit feminist thought? How do their locations and identities affect
their processes of knowledge-making, as well as the form and content of their
ideas? How does feminist thought travel,
and what happens as it does so? How can
we, as individuals and as a class, enter this flow of ideas? How do our multiple, intersecting identities
enable us to read, think, speak, and write about issues of gender, sexuality,
race, class, and nation?”
Throughout
the semester, we consider the politics of “theory” itself. The course provides a forum in which to
explore the assumption that something widely recognized as “feminist theory” is
inherently more theoretical than, say, a political demonstration, theatrical
performance, novel, or photograph.
Furthermore, this course enables students to develop the skills needed
to interpret activism, performance, visual art, or creative writing as
manifestations of—rather than exclusively reflections of—feminist thought. Finally, this course encourages students to
think collaboratively, to co-create productive conversations, to experiment
with new modes of expression, to dream, and to integrate these theoretical
explorations with a critical analysis of the politics of our own multiple locations.
Texts and Policies
Required Texts (please note that you are not
required to purchase every book; all
course texts are on reserve at the library):
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Bridges Volume 10 Number 1 (2004): Special Issue: Women in the Israeli Peace
Movement
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume I
Chrys Ingraham, White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in
Popular Culture
Judith Katz, The Escape Artist
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing
Theory, Practicing Solidarity
Linda Nicholson,
ed. The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist
Theory
Ella Shohat, Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a
Transnational Age
Sourcebook (SB)
Recommended texts:
Daisy Hernández and Bushra
Rehman, eds. Colonize This! Young Women
of Color on Today’s Feminism
Robert J.C.
Young, Postcolonialism: A Very Short
Introduction
Films:
Las Madres de la Plaza de Maya (Argentina, 1985 [subtitled])
The Watermelon Woman (United States, 1997)
Course Requirements and Grading:
Attendance
and informed, productive participation 25%
of total grade
5-page
paper (due October 19) 10%
Prospectus
for Final Paper (due November 2) 5%
International
perspective on U.S. Presidential Election
(due November 9) 5%
Progress
Report #1 (due November 16) 10%
Progress
Report #2 (due November 30) 10%
In-Class
Workshop (December 7 or 14) 5%
Draft
of Final Paper (due December 21) 5%
12-15
page paper (due Tuesday, January 18, 2005) 25%
All assignments (except for the final paper) are due in class.
Late papers will be penalized
one third of a letter grade for each day overdue.
The Prospectus, International Perspective on the
Failure to complete any
assignment can lower your grade far in excess of the stated percentage.
The assignment for the first
paper will be distributed on October 5.
All other assignments will be distributed on October 19.
Course Policies:
This course requires students to take collective
responsibility for the success of every classroom discussion. This responsibility involves two
components. First, you are required to
arrive in class having read and thought
about all the reading. In other
words, merely gulping down the reading is inadequate. You should come to class having chewed and
digested the material thoroughly. You
are expected to prepare your own thoughts, opinions, and questions before every
class. Second, you must express your
ideas in a respectful manner that advances our conversation. Practices that disrespect your colleagues
(for example, interrupting, hogging the floor, launching personal attacks, or
answering cell phones) will shut down rather than further conversation; such
practices, therefore, are unacceptable.
Your productive, informed participation constitutes
25% of your grade for this course. That
means that a student who receives an A on every assignment, but who never
speaks in class, will receive a C+ for the course. You need not be equally vocal every week, but
consistent silence will adversely affect your grade. Lateness and unexcused absence will also
lower your grade.
September 21. Reading Feminist
Action as Feminist Theory
Read in class:
Excerpt from Noel Sturgeon,
“Theorizing Movements: Direct Action and Direct Theory” (chap. in Marcy
Darnovsky, Barbara Epstein, and Richard Flacks, Cultural Politics and Social Movements [
View in class: excerpts from
Las Madres de la Plaza de Maya (Argentina,
1985 [subtitled])
September 28. Nationalism and Transnationalism
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the
Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised Edition. (London and New York:
Verso, 1991), “Introduction” and “Cultural Roots,” pp. 1-36 (SB)
Arjun Appadurai,
“Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” In The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. Simon
During (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 220-230 (SB)
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing
Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
(pp. 1-136)
RECOMMENDED: Robert J.C. Young, Postcolonialism:
A Very Short Introduction
October 5. Borders and
Intersections
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping
the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women
of Color.” In After Identity: A Reader in
Law and Culture, ed. Dan Danielsen and Karen Engle (New York : Routledge,
1995 ), pp. 332-354 (SB)
Visual art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look at works by Jaune
Quick-to-See Smith (p. xiv and 415) and Anne Nash (p. 424)
RECOMMENDED: M.A. Jaimes,
“Guerrero, Savage Hegemony: From ‘Endangered Species’ to Feminist Indiginism,”
in Shohat, Talking Visions, pp.
413-440
ASSIGNMENT FOR THE FIRST PAPER DISTRIBUTED
October 12. Standpoint Theory and the Politics of Location
Nancy C. M. Hartsock, “The
Feminist Standpoint: Developing the Ground for a Specifically Feminist
Historical Materialism, in The Second Wave,
pp. 216-240
Monique Wittig, “One is Not
Born a Woman,” in The Second Wave,
pp. 265-271
Donna Haraway, “Situated
Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial
Perspective,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and
Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), pp. 183-199
(SB)
Caren Kaplan, “‘Beyond the
Pale’: Rearticulating
Adrian Piper, “Passing for
White, Passing for Black,” in Shohat, Talking
Visions, pp. 75-112
Visual art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look at the works by
Adrian Piper (pps. 80 and 100), Lorraine O’Grady (p. 96), Abbe Don (p. 459),
and Deborah Kass (p. 469)
October 19. Identity and
Community
PAPER #1 DUE!!
The
Patricia Hill Collins,
“Defining Black Feminist Thought,” in Nicholson, The Second Wave, pp. 241-259
Cherríe Moraga and Gloria
Anzaldúa, eds. This Bridge Called My
Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (selections in SB)
Norma Alarcón, “The
Theoretical Subject(s) of This Bridge
Called My Back and Anglo-American Feminism,” in Nicholson, The Second Wave, pp. 288-299
Queer Nation Manifestos
<http://www.jessanderson.org/doc/qnation.html>
RECOMMENDED: Daisy Hernández
and Bushra Rehman, eds. Colonize This!
Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism
TO
BE DISTRIBUTED: ASSIGNMENT FOR FINAL PAPER, INCLUDING DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR
PROSPECTUS, PROGRESS REPORTS, IN-CLASS WORKSHOP, AND DRAFT
October 26. The Situated Body/The Sexual Body
bell hooks, “naked without
shame: a counter-hegemonic body politic,” in Shohat, Talking Visions, pp. 65-74
Kathleen Zane, “Reflections
on a Yellow Eye: Asian I (\Eye/)Cons and Cosmetic Surgery,” in Shohat, Talking Visions, pp. 161-192
Lisa Jones, “The Hair
Trade,” in Shohat, Talking Visions,
pp. 119-136
Visual
art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look
at the works by Yolanda Andrade (p. x), Renée Green (p. 26), Yong Soon Min (p.
45), Nicole Eisenman (p. 63), Walter Lima Jr. (p. 68), Kara Walker (p. 74),
Liliana Porter (p. 115), Maud Sulter (p. 117), Lynne Yamamoto (p. 124), Lorna
Simpson (p. 130), Indu Krishnan (p. 155), Celia Rumsey (p. 162), Sister’s Pictorial magazine (p. 165),
Pam Tom (p. 170), Tiana (p. 177), Patricia Hoffbauer (pp. 188 and 190), Juan
Sanchez (p. 194), Dolores Zorreguieta (p. 204), Donna Han (p. 212), Marta Maria
Perez Bravo (p. 248), Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons (p. 252), Ellen Spiro (p.
256), Guerrilla Girls (p. 262)
PROSPECTUS DUE!!
Election Day! Vote!!
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Volume I
Tricia Rose, “Two Inches a
Yard”: Silencing Black Women’s Sexual Expression,” in Shohat, Talking Visions, pp. 315-324
Visual art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look at works by Renée
Green (p. 26), Jocelyn Taylor (p. 316) and Renée Cox (p. 322)
RECOMMENDED:
November 9. Identity and
Performance
Bring to class one
non-American’s thoughts regarding the results of last week’s
Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” In Performing
Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre, ed. Sue-Ellen Case
(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 270-282 (SB)
Judith Halberstam,
“Mackdaddy, Superfly, Rapper: Gender, Race, and Masculinity in the Drag King
Scene.” Social Text 52/53, nos 3 and
4 (Fall/Winter 1997), 105-131 (SB)
May Joseph, “Transatlantic Inscriptions: Desire, Diaspora, and Cultural
Citizenship,” in Shohat, Talking Visions,
pp. 357-368
Carmelita Tropicana,
“Looking Good: A Performer’s Perspective,” in Shohat, Talking Visions, pp. 137-142
Visual art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look at the works by
Carmelita Tropicana and Ela Troyano (p. 138), Hanh Thi Pham (p. 140), Teri
Slotkin (p. 268), Mensual magazine
(p. 286) Annie Sprinkle and Maria Beatty (p. 296), Shu Lea Cheang (p. 309),
Catherine Opie (313), Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez-Peña (p. 338) Jamelie
Hassan (p. 360), and Ernesto Pujol (p. 362)
November 16. The Transnational Foundations of Gender and Sexuality
PROGRESS REPORT #1 DUE!
Chrys Ingraham, White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in
Popular Culture, Chapters 1, 2, and 3, pp. 1-121
Carla Freeman, High Tech and High Heels in the Global
Economy: Women, Work, and Pink-Collar Identities in the Caribbean (
November 23. Clothing and/as
Transnational Feminist Thought
Guest Speaker: Annemarie
Strassel
Reading TBA
SIGN UP FOR IN-CLASS WORKSHOP (December 7 or December 14)
November 30. Work as/and Transnational Feminist Thought
PROGRESS REPORT #2 DUE!
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing
Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Chapter 6, pp. 139-168
Visual art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look at works by Joyce
Scott (p. 18), and Laura Aguilar (p. 392)
RECOMMENDED: Teresa
Carrillo, “Cross-Border Talk: Transnational Perspectives on Labor, Race, and
Sexuality,” in Shohat, Talking Visions,
pp. 391-412
December 7. Peace, War, and Activism
IN-CLASS WORKSHOP!!
Bridges Volume 10 Number 1 (2004): Special Issue: Women in the Israeli Peace
Movement
Mervat F. Hatem, “The
Invisible American Half: Arab American Hybridity and Feminist Discourses in the
1990s,” in Shohat, Talking Visions,
pp. 369-390
Visual art in Shohat, Talking Visions: look at works by Shirin
Neshat (p. 148), Jamelie Hassan (p. 374), Mona Hatoum (p. 380)
December 14. Toward a Usable
Past
IN-CLASS WORKSHOP!!
Judith Katz, The Escape Artist
Film: The Watermelon Woman (Please note: this film is on reserve in the Language Resource Room on the 6th floor of Lamont
Library. Please screen this film BEFORE
class.)
RECOMMENDED: Carroll
Smith-Rosenberg, “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women
in Nineteenth-Century America,” in Disorderly
Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1985), pp. 53-76 and Joan W. Scott, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical
Analysis,” in Gender and the Politics of
History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), pp. 28-50 (both books
on library reserve)
December 21. Toward Feminist Futures
DRAFT OF FINAL PAPER DUE!!
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing
Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Chapter 9, pp. 221-251
Inderpal Grewal, “On the New
Global Feminism and the Family of Nations: Dilemmas of Transnational Feminist
Practice,” in Shohat, Talking Visions,
pp. 501-532
Mallika Dutt, “Reclaiming a
Human Rights Culture: Feminism of Difference and
Visual art in Shohat,
Talking Visions: look at works by Anne S. Walker (pp. 228 and 506), Diane Tani
(p. 236), Flo Oy Wong (p. 488), Yoshiko Shimada (p. 496), Soo-Ja Kim (p. 514),
Hung Liu (p. 531), and Zarina (p. 575)
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2005: FINAL PAPER DUE!
Please hand your paper to Stephanie Gauchel in the Office of the
Program of Studies in Women, Gender, and Sexuality (