I hate all you super dyke femi nazies.> > From: ALBANY::INGRAHAM 31-OCT-1994 15:56:38.97 > To: INGRAHAM > CC: > Subj: > > We are seeking submissions to Materialist Feminism: A Reader, > an anthology of writings by materialist feminists from 1975-1995. > Materialist feminist work is distinguished by the claim that the > critical perspective of historical materialism is historically necessary > and empowering for feminism's oppositional political project. Materialist > feminism calls for a consideration of the ways divisions of labor, state > power, as well as gendered, racial, national and sexual subjectivities, > bodies, and knowledges are all crucial to social production. While materialist > feminists have made use of postmodern critiques of empiricism to develop > analyses of the role of ideology in women's oppression, they have also > insisted that ideology is only one facet of social life. This systemic > view--the argument that the materiality of the social consists of divisions > of labor, state power, and ideology--is one of the distinguishing features > of materialist feminist analysis. > During the 1980s identity politics--often formulated by academics in > terms of social constructionism or the more popular multiculturalism-- > has increasingly suppressed systemic analysis, and postmodern cultural > materialism is rapidly replacing more radical social theories. Materialist > Feminism: A Reader will argue against this retreat to identity and cultural > politics for the ways it keeps invisible the material links among the > explosion of meaning-making practices, the exploitation of women's labor > and the appropriation of women's bodies that continue to undergird the > scramble for profits and state power in late capitalism. > At the same time the Reader will offer trenchant materialist analysis, > it is also primarily feminist. Efforts to address the relationship between > patriarchy and capitalism have persistently characterized materialist feminist > critique even as the monolithic perspectives of many of these explorations > have been challenged and rethought. Recent work speaks to the complex > intersection of social structures like patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, wh it > supremacy, and heterosexuality and extends our understanding of their > historically specific and differentiated effects on women's and men's everyday > lives. We hope the essays in the reader will exemplify a range of positions > on how to address these social totalities as well as nuanced analyses of their > articulated effects in specific social formations. > The first section of the Reader will provide an archive of essays > that delineate the debates out of which materialist feminism emerged as > well as some of the pressing issues of the eighties. The second part will > consist of previously unpublished writing. > We invite contributions to Part II of the Reader from those who > situate their work within the parameters outlined above. Send proposals, > finished papers (20-30pp) or inquiries to either Rosemary Hennessy, Dept. > of English, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12222 Hennessy@albnyvms or > Chrys Ingraham, Sociology and Criminal Justice, Russell Sage College, > Troy, NY 12180 Ingraham@albnyvms by January 15, 1995. >