In an era of backlash and supposed stagnation, feminist philosophers are still providing fresh and challenging perspectives—you just have to know where to look. Continental feminist theory continues to address pressing questions of equality and difference, identity and subjectivity. Modern thinkers like Judith Butler, Kelly Oliver, and Drucilla Cornell give strikingly new perspectives on sex, gender, sexual politics, and the various social reasons for gender inequality. Yet their theories are not always well received. Continental Feminism Reader responds to the marginalization of these thinkers and others like them. In this volume, Ann J. Cahill and Jennifer Hansen collect the most groundbreaking recent work in Continental Feminist Theory, introducing and explaining pieces that are often mystifying to those outside the field and outside academia. With these essays, Continental Feminism Reader begins the process of reanimating feminist politics through the critical tools of its contributors.

First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Black Feminism and Continental Philosophy in dialogue.

"We translate what American women write, they never translate our texts," wrote Helene Cixous almost two decades ago. Her complaint about the unavailability of French feminist writing in English has long since been rectified, but the situation for feminist writing by German-speaking philosophers remains today what it was then. This pioneering collection takes a giant step forward to overcoming this handicap, revealing the full richness and variety of feminist critique ongoing in this linguistic community. The essays offer fresh readings of thinkers from the Enlightenment to the present, including those often discussed by feminists everywhere--such as Freud, Habermas, Hegel, Kant, and Rousseau--as well as some less subjected to feminist critique such as Benjamin and Weininger. In their Introduction the editors provide the context for understanding both how these essays fit into the larger picture of developing feminist theory and what makes their contribution in some ways distinctive.

This book appraises the relationship between contemporary feminism and Julia Kristeva, a major figure in Continental thought. It addresses the conflicting range of feminist responses to Kristeva's key ideas and Kristeva's equally conflicting as well as ambiguous position vis-a-vis feminism. Schippers argues that this complex relationship can only be understood by positioning Kristeva along the fissures and fault lines which run through feminism. By attending to feminism's internal debates and disputes, and addressing the philosophical commitments and attachments held by Kristeva's critics, the book clarifies the diverse Kristeva reception within feminism and illuminates how her ideas trouble contemporary feminist thought. And despite Kristeva's fundamental ambiguity towards all matters feminist, Schippers makes a case for Kristeva's important contribution to a feminist project which is sympathetic towards her account of fluid subjectivity and her critique of identity politics. In doing so, the author advances the scholarly understanding of Kristeva and of contemporary feminist thought.

Rethinking Rape applies current feminist theory to an urgent political and ethical issue to counter definitions of rape as mere assault Book jacket.