Universität Wien

128303 AR Theory (MA) (2018W)

Theorising Feminism(s) in the Age of Lawfare

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 10.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 17.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 24.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 31.10. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 07.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 14.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 21.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 28.11. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 05.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 12.12. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 09.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 16.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 23.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19
  • Wednesday 30.01. 16:00 - 18:00 Raum 4 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-19

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

What does it mean to be feminist in the age of the Anthropocene, in the age of the 'post-human'?
In these paradoxical times of disorientation (Sluga, Harrison), states have been 'emasculated' by the Market while the regime of finance-capitalism has made many lives both precarious and superfluous. This current state of affairs is affecting the social intersectionally: across age, class, gender as well as 'race'. An inflationary use of lawfare discourses - from humanitarian interventions to human rights declarations (indigenous, Earth, to name but a few) - has emerged in tandem with a series of backlashes: cultural, ideological, political. Feminism's backlash is just one amongst many others: the erection of walls, the fiction and metaphysics of race, religious fanatism as well as ideological instrumentalisations of laicist identities.
The aim of this course is to re-open the feminist archive and to re-visit classical key-texts of first, second and third wave feminism. Postcolonial and recent 'cyborg' perspectives will also be part of the syllabus. This course is based on the premise that feminism and its multiple languages need to renew themselves: since we live in a time of 'planetary entanglement' (Mbembe), feminism requires radical de-nationalisation and more radical agendas, which go beyond sexism and identity politics; feminism's failures, its blind spots and women's complicity with patriarchal structures require urgent critical investigations.

Assessment and permitted materials

Active participation: 20%
Specialist task: 20%
End-term paper: 60%

Students must attain at least 60% to pass this course.
No more than two lessons may be missed.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Regular attendance; regular preparation of assigned reading material; active participation in class; specialist tasks; written assignments, end-term paper.

Examination topics

Texts and contents covered throughout the semester. Participants are expected to read all set texts plus the additional secondary/theoretical material provided in the reader; they are also expected to engage in autonomous research, to offer a critical and reflective analysis of texts and concepts.

Reading list

Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own (1929)

EXTRACTS from Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949), Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch (1970), Judith Butler's Gender Trouble (1990), bell hooks's Feminism is for Everybody (2000) Clare Hemmings's Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory (2010).

All these texts will be made available in a Reader at CopyStudio Schwarzspanierstraße.

Association in the course directory

Studium: MA 844;
Code/Modul: MA3;
Lehrinhalt: 12-0192

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:33