Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom

Cloth $62.50 ISBN: 9780226981338 Published October 2005

Paper $27.50 ISBN: 9780226981345 Published October 2005

In contemporary feminist theory, the problem of feminine subjectivity persistently appears and reappears as the site that grounds all discussion of feminism. In Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom, Linda M. G. Zerilli argues that the persistence of this subject-centered frame severely limits feminists' capacity to think imaginatively about the central problem of feminist theory and practice: a politics concerned with freedom.

Offering both a discussion of feminism in its postmodern context and a critique of contemporary theory, Zerilli here challenges feminists to move away from a theory-based approach, which focuses on securing or contesting "women" as an analytic category of feminism, to one rooted in political action and judgment. She revisits the democratic problem of exclusion from participation in common affairs and elaborates a freedom-centered feminism as the political practice of beginning anew, world-building, and judging.

In a series of case studies, Zerilli draws on the political thought of Hannah Arendt to articulate a nonsovereign conception of political freedom and to explore a variety of feminist understandings of freedom in the twentieth century, including ones proposed by Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, and the Milan Women's Bookstore Collective. In so doing, Zerilli hopes to retrieve what Arendt called feminism's lost treasure: the original and radical claim to political freedom.

Review Quotes
Contents

"This is an exciting and exhilarating book, clearly destined to have a lasting influence in feminist theory. Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom tries to move the feminist debate from the two approaches which have dominated feminism from its inception: the subordination of politics to the social question and the centrality of the question of subjectivity. Here, Zerilli makes a serious effort to go beyond the terrain of identity politics and its critics. The emphasis is put, on the contrary, on political judgment as the basis for forming political communities and on practices of freedom."--Ernesto Laclau, University of Essex

“With a courage and conviction befitting its subject-matter, Linda M. G. Zerilli’s fresh, agile, and illuminating book urges contemporary feminists to break the bonds of subject-centered theorizing and begin anew, by imagining possibilities in the practices and politics of freedom. Working through the inspiration of Hannah Arendt, and powered by an ingenious array of contemporary thinkers, she creatively interprets sexual difference as a political practice, and theorizes feminism as a freedom-centered politics animated by action, speech, individuality, plurality, and political judgment. The aftereffects of this book are sure to be profound and long-lasting, for feminism and contemporary political theory alike.”--Mary G. Dietz, University of Minnesota

"In her wonderful new book . . . Linda Zerilli tells a story of how feminist politics has been framed in ways that subvert its connection to freedom. . . . Zerilli tells a story that shifts feminism off its foundation and onto the shaky grounds of freedom."

"Zerilli has done an admirable job of presenting . . . her notion of political freedom on the basis of a very compelling and beautifully written interpretation of Arendt's political theory. Likewise . . . she has succeeded admirably in showing how this notion of freedom might be realized in feminist practice. . . . A very important contribution to both political theory and feminist politics."—Marion Smiley, Perspectives on Politics

"A significant and engaging book. It throws down an important challenge not only to feminists but also to political theorists: how to think of political freedom outside the frame of the subject."—Mpya Lloyd, Redescription

"Having pushed beyond the ruling paradigms of feminist theory . . . --in general, [Zerilli] offers more original argument per chapter than many works of theory offer per book--Zerilli proceeds to develop what she considers the key alternative to the subject-centered approach: a world-centered politics modeled on the thought of Hannah Arendt."—Jane Elliott, Modernism/Modernity

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
Why Feminism and Freedom Both Begin with the Letter F
Freedom as a Social Question
Freedom as a Subject Question
Freedom as a World Question
Feminism's "Lost Treasure"

CHAPTER ONE
Feminists Know Not What They Do: Judith Butler's Gender Trouble
and the Limits of Epistemology
Theory—The Craving for Generality?
A Wittgensteinian Reading of the Feminist Foundations Debate
Doing Gender, Following a Rule
Radical Imagination and Figures of the Newly Thinkable
Toward a Freedom-Centered Feminist Theory

CHAPTER TWO
Feminists Are Beginners: Monique Wittig's Les guérillères
and the "Problem of the New"
The Limits of Doubt
Language as a "War Machine"
Renversement
No-More and Not-Yet
Elles—A Fantastic Universal

CHAPTER THREE
Feminists Make Promises: The Milan Collective's Sexual Difference
and the Project of World-Building
Tearing Up the Social Contract
The Desire for Reparation
The Problem with Equality
Discovering Disparity
A Political Practice of Sexual Difference
Refiguring Rights

CHAPTER FOUR
Feminists Make Judgments: Hannah Arendt's Lectures on Kant's
Political Philosophy and the Affirmation of Freedom
Judgment and the "Problem of the New"
The Old Problem of Objectivity
Judging without a Concept
One Concept of Validity
A Political Concept of Validity
From World-Disclosure to World-Opening
"Being and thinking in my own identity where actually I am not"
Imagination and Freedom
Sensus Communis and the Practice of Freedom

CONCLUSION
Reframing the Freedom Question in Feminism
Feminism's Paradox of Founding
What a Political Claim Is
Feminism Is a World-Building Practice
Recovering Feminism's "Lost Treasure"

Notes
Index

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu

History: History of Ideas

Philosophy: Philosophy of Society

Political Science: Political and Social Theory

Women's Studies

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