Woman As Nomad: An Alternative Configuration Of Female
Subjectivity
Ozden SOZALAN
The most challenging task feminism has to tackle today is to chart the ground on which to base its politics due to the simple fact that questions of definitions and contexts overlap as the histories of colonialism, capitalism, race and gender are viewed as interrelated. Rosi Braidotti's theorising of a new model of female feminist subjectivity in a nomadic mode responds to the women's homelessness formulated as far back as 1938 by Virginia Woolf.
Her theory questions a certain form of internationalism which was, for historical reasons, led by the hegemony of white western feminists. Understood as a model for intersubjective relationships, the nomadic mode also foregrounds multiculturalism not only as a difference between cultures but also as a difference between the same culture, and within every self.
One consequence of the encounter with the contemporary theories of subjectivity has been an anxiety over the state of feminism in a postmodern, post-industrial, post-colonial age, in which ''We cannot know who we are until we act, and our action always takes place in a particular context of relationship to and dialogue with particular others." 4 It is no easy task for feminism to chart the ground on which to base its politics, due to the simple fact that questions of definitions and context overlap as the histories of colonialism, capitalism, race and gender are viewed as interrelated. Ours is a world in which, with the rise of transnational corporations, the nation-state has lost its significance as a socioeconomic unit for analysis while. paradoxically, ethnic or religious differences are being used negatively and divisevely for the interests of globalisation. In addition, the people living in the underdeveloped countries have been exposed to the influence of Western culture, while on the other hand, the massive migration of ex-colonial populations to Europe has resulted in the creation of multicultural, multiethnic, and multi-linguistic social formations similar to those in the U.S.A. All of these developments call for cross-national and cross-cultural analyses that take into consideration the intersecting lines of power and resistance in terms of a number of variables such as sex, race, class, ethnicity, and life-style.
Birincil Dil | İngilizce |
---|---|
Konular | Sanat ve Edebiyat |
Bölüm | Makaleler |
Yazarlar | |
Yayımlanma Tarihi | 16 Ağustos 2014 |
Gönderilme Tarihi | 16 Ağustos 2014 |
Yayımlandığı Sayı | Yıl 2004 Sayı: 16 |