From Feminism to Intersectionality

This lecture is on feminist literary theory. One of the many challenges with the subject is that the literary theory overlaps with the socio-political developments we attribute to the feminist movement. It will be impossible to disambiguate them entirely, though it is somewhat helpful to note 'waves' and periods within the movement.

The larger issue, however, is the philosophical backdrop against which the feminist movement arises. My contention is that largely arises out of the Kantian notion of the rational autonomous self, which because of Edmund Burke's unwitting contribution, was largely connected to the issue of power. For Burke, this played a central role in his aesthetic theory, and the categorical distinction he made between the sublime and the beautiful. [A lecture on this and the relation to power in each was given last semester]

Along with the issue of power in relation to the two sexes, however, an even more profound issue arose: the matter of human nature. For Kant (as for Descartes), the notion of selfhood was largely a disembodied one, which gave rise to the tendency of human personhood in Gnostic terms (the Gnostics regarded the body as an alien substance, a prison for the soul).

The problematic issues of power and human identity that are a legacy of Enlightenment rationalism are ones that feminist theorists have repeatedly pointed out. But their solution to the problems, to my mind, largely correct the problem by assuming the legitimacy of the Enlightenment paradigm, and by seeking female 'equality' on its (specious) terms.

I will hint at the crisis in the human sciences that feminist theories have observed, and suggest a new way forward is needed: a Christian theological anthropology of personhood. That combined with a right philosophy of language will once again yield a fruitful literary theory rather than a (self-)destructive one.


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