Fortunes of Feminism
Teona RekhviashviliEcminism Insurgent: Radicalizing C ritique in the Era o f Social D em ocracy * I am grateful to Jo h n Brenkm an, T h o m a s M cC a rth y, C a ro le Patem an and M artin Sch w ab for helpful com m ents and criticism ; to Dee M arq u ez and M arin a Rosiene for crackerjack w ord processing; and to the Stanford H um anities Center for research support. 1 Karl M arx, " Letter to A . R u g e , Septem ber 1843," in K arl M a rx : Early Writings, trans. R o d n e y Livingstone and G regor Benton, N e w York: Vintage Books, 1975, 209. 20 FEMINISM INSURGENT 2 Jiirg en H ab erm as, T h e T heory o f C om m unicative A ction, Vol. I: R eason and the R a tio n aliza tio n o f Society, trans. T h o m a s M cC a rth y, B o ston: B e aco n Press, 1984. H ereafter, T C A I. Ju rg e n H aberm as, T heorie des kom m unikativen Handelns, Vol. II: Z u r K ritik der fu nktion alistischen Vernunft, Frankfurt am M ain : Suhrkam p Verlag, 19 8 1. H ereafter T C A II. I shall also draw on som e oth er writings b y H aberm as, especially Legitim ation C risis, trans. T h o m a s M cC arth y, B oston: B e aco n Press, 19 75: " Introduction," in O bservations on " T h e S p iritu al Situation o f the A g e " : Contem porary G erm an Perspectives, ed. Ju rg e n H aberm as, trans. A n d re w Bu ch w alter, C am b rid ge, M A : M I T Press, 19 8 4 ; and " A R e p ly to m y C ritics," in H aberm as: Critical Debates, ed. D a vid H e ld and Jo h n B. T h o m p so n , C a m b rid ge , M A : M I T Press, 19 8 2. I shall draw likewise on tw o helpful overview s o f this m aterial: T h o m a s M cC arth y, " Translators Introduction," in H aberm as, T C A I, v -x x x v ii; and Jo h n B. Th o m p so n , " R atio n a lity and Social Rationalisation: A n Assessm ent o f H aberm as's T h e o r y o f C o m m u n ica tiv e A ctio n ," Sociology 1 7 :2 , 19 8 3, 2 7 8 -9 4 . Habermas, I am trying to link structural (in the sense o f objectivating) and interpretive approaches to the study o f societies. Unlike him, however, I do not do this by dividing society into two components, " system" and " lifeworld." See this section below and especially note 14. 1 7 Pam ela Fishm an, " Interaction: T h e W o rk W o m en D o ," Social Problems 25 :4 , 1978, 397-4 06 . 18 N a n c y H enley, B o d y Politics, E n g le w o o d Cliffs, N J: Pren tice-H all, 1977-2 7 Ibid., 8. 28 Judith H icks Stiehm , " T h e Protected, the Protector, the Defender," in Women and M e n ' s Wars, ed. Judith Hicks Stiehm , N e w York: Pergamon Press, 1983. 29 Pateman, " T h e Personal and the Political " 10. 42 C f. Zillah Eisenstein, The Radical Future o f Liberal Feminism , Boston: Northeastern U niversity Press, 198 1, especially Chapter 9. W h at follows has some affinities with the perspective o f Ernesto Laclau and Chantal M ouffe in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, N e w York: Verso, 1985. * I am grateful for helpful com m ents from Sandra Bartky, Lin da G o rd o n , Paul M attick , Jr ., Frank M ich elm an , M a rth a M inow , Linda N ich o lso n , and Iris Young. T h e M a r y Ingraham Bunting Institute o f R adcliffe C o llege provided generous research support and a utopian w o rk in g situation. i Foucault, D iscipline and Punish: The Birth o f the Prison, trans. Alan Sheridan, N e w York: Vintage, 1979, 26. 7 Ifthe previous point was Bakhtinian, this one could be considered Bourdieusian. There is probably no contem porary social theorist w h o has worked more fruitfully than Bourdieu at understanding cultural contestation in relation to societal inequality. See his Outline o f a Theory o f Practice, trans. Richard N ice, Cam bridge: Cam bridge University Press, 1977, and Distinction: A Social Critique o f the Judgm ent o f Pure Taste, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979. For an account o f Bourdieu s enduring relevance, see N an cy Fraser, " Bourdieu: U n e reflexion pour l'ere postindustrielle," L e monde, January 24, 20 12. Accessible at lemonde.fr. 8 Here the model aims to m arry Bakhtin with Bourdieu. 9 I owe this formulation to Paul M attick, Jr. For a thoughtful discussion o f the * N an cy Fraser is grateful for research support from the C en ter for Urban Affairs, N orthwestern University; the N e w b e r ry Library/N ational End ow m ent for the Humanities; and the A m erican C o u
