Book•
The Politics of Postmodernism
01 Jan 1989-
TL;DR: In this article, the postmodernist representation is de-naturalized the natural, Photographic discourse, Telling Stories: fiction and history, Re-presenting the past: 'total history' de-totalized, Knowing the past in the present, The archive as text.
Abstract: General editor's preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Representing the postmodern: What is postmodernism? Representation and its politics, Whose postmodernism? Postmodernity, postmodernism, and modernism. 2. Postmodernist representation: De-naturalizing the natural, Photographic discourse, Telling Stories: fiction and history. 3. Re-presenting the past: 'Total history' de-totalized, Knowing the past in the present, The archive as text. 4. The politics of parody: Parodic postmodern representation, Double-coded politics, Postmodern film? 5. Text/image border tensions: The paradoxes of photography, The ideological arena of photo-graphy, The politics of address 6. Postmodernism and feminisms: Politicizing desire, Feminist postmodernist parody, The private and the public. Concluding note: some directed reading. Bibliography. Index.
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TL;DR: The authors argue that the fact that almost no publications exist in the English language that understand the word ‘Mexican’ in travel writing to refer to citizens of Mexican nationality reveals a rather colonialist mentality at work: travellers are presumed to be citizens of the (ex-colonial powers of the Western World and places like Mexico are the passive recipients of their gazes.
Abstract: What does the ‘Mexican’ in ‘Mexican travel writing’ actually mean? In the fi eld of English studies in the United Kingdom, its meaning is assumed to be quite straightforward. Thus a critic such as Nigel Leask can publish an article entitled ‘The Ghost in Chapultepec: Fanny Calderon de la Barca, William Prescott and Nineteenth-Century Mexican Travel Accounts’ safe in the knowledge that ‘Mexican travel accounts’ are those works written about travels in Mexico by foreign writers.1 But in Mexico the two-volume publication Viajes en Mexico (Mexican Journeys) is explicitly divided into ‘Cronicas mexicanas’ (Mexican chronicles or accounts) and ‘Cronicas extranjeras’ (foreign accounts).2 So here, the ‘Mexican’ in ‘Mexican accounts’ refers quite clearly to those accounts that are written by writers of Mexican nationality. It seems perfectly acceptable that both meanings should co-exist – especially as, to avoid confusion, many publications concerning travel writing and a certain nation or nationality fi nd ways to make questions of destination and the origin of the author(s) of the work more explicit. Nevertheless, the fact that almost no publications exist in the English language that understand the ‘Mexican’ in ‘Mexican travel writing’ to refer to citizens of Mexican nationality reveals a rather colonialist mentality at work: travellers are presumed to be citizens of the (ex-)colonial powers of the Western World and places like Mexico are the passive recipients of their gazes. In other words, Mexicans are presumed not to write travel books so there is no need to distinguish quite what is meant by the adjective ‘Mexican’. In this article I argue that while evidently there exist travel books written by Mexican authors, the prevailing metropolitan assumptions about travel
18 citations
18 citations
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, a post-modern-feminism deconstruction and reconstruction is used to expose and interrogate paradigm shifts resulting in subsequent personal transformations, and to map and track deeply held assumptions found embedded in essentialist, dualistic and modernist paradigms.
Abstract: Within art therapy discourses there is a dearth of scholarly literature related to the dilemmas of voicing lesbianism and picturing lesbians. This is the result of sustained discrimination and censorship worldwide. In order to address this issue, a research study was designed to investigate this topic and its relationship to informing art therapy.
There were two research methods and two research processes used in the project. Autobiography and art based research were the methods, and intertextuality and reflexivity were the research processes. The methodology that underpinned the project was postmodern-feminism.
Autobiographical material created through an art-based research method was reflexively viewed. The newly created visual texts stimulated intertextual links to past visual and written texts. These texts were used to map and track deeply held assumptions found embedded in essentialist, dualistic and modernist paradigms. By the use of postmodernfeminism deconstruction and reconstruction the investigation exposed and interrogated paradigm shifts resulting in subsequent personal transformations.
The study revealed how past personal experiences of homophobia, lesbian invisibility and mental health treatment were deeply embedded in gender/sexuality norms, visual art discourse and social stigmatisation. These experiences impacted significantly on the ability to verbally and visually reveal both lesbian and lesbianism, and as such impacted on perceptual shaping of multiple selves within self. The study further demonstrated how the postmodern-feminist investigation destabilised dominant paradigms and subverted their location in “truth”, allowing for reconstruction of selves to be explicitly pictured.
The significance of the findings for art therapy is three fold. Firstly, by offering a postmodern-feminist perspective through a lesbian lens, embedded modernist paradigms central to art therapy discourse are challenged. Secondly, the creative process of image making, within a postmodern-feminist frame is showcased. Within such a process change can be mobilised and self perceptions can be transformed. Thirdly, the study has advanced art therapy towards a more contemporary and critically informed discipline, one that can reflect on possible dilemmas encountered by lesbian clientele when verbally or visually self representing. The implications of the study have several intersections for the broader arts and health care sectors.
18 citations
Cites background from "The Politics of Postmodernism"
...Within the art context, parody can be used to explore questions such as “How do some representations get legitimised and authorised? And, at the expense of which others? Parody can offer a way of investigating the history of that process” (Hutcheon, 2002, p. 97), however, parody must also be accompanied by recognisable representations otherwise the irony will be missed. As such parodic representations are often blatant rather than obscure, accompanied by several ways of reading so as not to fail in conveying the irony. In terms of the feminist critique of art, Hutcheon (2002) asserted that “parodic strategies are often used by feminist artists to point to the history and historical power of those cultural representations, while ironically contextualising both in such a way as to deconstruct them” (p....
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...Within the art context, parody can be used to explore questions such as “How do some representations get legitimised and authorised? And, at the expense of which others? Parody can offer a way of investigating the history of that process” (Hutcheon, 2002, p. 97), however, parody must also be accompanied by recognisable representations otherwise the irony will be missed. As such parodic representations are often blatant rather than obscure, accompanied by several ways of reading so as not to fail in conveying the irony. In terms of the feminist critique of art, Hutcheon (2002) asserted that “parodic strategies are often used by feminist artists to point to the history and historical power of those cultural representations, while ironically contextualising both in such a way as to deconstruct them” (p. 98). In terms of self research, Hutcheon (2002) explained how parody “can be used as a self-reflexive technique that points to art as art, but also art as inescapably bound to its aesthetic and even social past....
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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The concept of a feminist philosopher is Contradictory given the basic premise of philosophy as discussed by the authors, and the concept of poststructuralism and post-modernism is problematic.
Abstract: .............................................................................................................III DECLARATION ..................................................................................................... IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................V INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 THESIS STRUCTURE AND OVERVIEW......................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS – FEMINISM AND DECONSTRUCTION ............................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 8 FEMINIST CRITIQUES OF PHILOSOPHY..................................................................... 10 Is Philosophy Inherently Masculine? ................................................................ 11 The Discipline of Philosophy Does Not Acknowledge Feminist Theories......... 13 The Concept of a Feminist Philosopher is Contradictory Given the Basic Premises of Philosophy...................................................................................... 14 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND POSTMODERNISM................... 15 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 27 CHAPTER 2: THE ‘SUBJECT’ OF FEMINISM................................................ 29 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 29 IDENTITY POLITICS FEMINISM ................................................................................ 35 DIFFERENCE FEMINISM........................................................................................... 40 DECONSTRUCTION .................................................................................................. 45 Feminist Criticisms of the Poststructural ‘Subject’........................................... 52 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 3: DERRIDEAN DECONSTRUCTION ........................................... 59 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 59 WHAT DECONSTRUCTION COULD BE ..................................................................... 61 FEMINIST CRITICISM OF DECONSTRUCTION ............................................................ 75 ‘Woman’ as Undecidable................................................................................... 75 THE POLITICS OF DECONSTRUCTION....................................................................... 84 Deconstruction and ‘Politics’............................................................................ 85 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 91 CHAPTER 4: WOMEN’S STUDIES IN THE ACADEMY................................ 93 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 93 OVERVIEW OF TERTIARY EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA (1960-1990) ........................ 94 WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT ....................................................................... 95 WOMEN’S STUDIES: A COLLECTION OF FRAGMENTS.............................................. 97 Flinders University .......................................................................................... 100 Sydney University.............................................................................................. 102 Deakin University ............................................................................................ 105 Griffith University............................................................................................ 107 Adelaide University.......................................................................................... 108 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 110 Postscript ......................................................................................................... 113 WOMEN’S STUDIES IN THE UNIVERSITY SECTOR 1970S–1990S: AN OVERVIEW .. 114 Existing Knowledges........................................................................................ 117 Challenging Institutional (workplace) Norms ................................................. 118 Developing New Theories and/or Methodologies ........................................... 119 THE ISSUE OF NAMING.......................................................................................... 121 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 122 CHAPTER 5: AUSTRALIAN FEMINISTS’ THEORETICAL CONCERNS 124 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 124 (FALSE) DIVIDE OR DICHOTOMY BETWEEN A POLITICAL FEMINISM AND AN ACADEMIC FEMINISM ........................................................................................... 128 THE PRECURSORS OF DECONSTRUCTION .............................................................. 132 Socialist Feminism........................................................................................... 133 Radical Feminism ............................................................................................ 134 Liberal Feminism............................................................................................. 137 THEORETICAL INFLUENCES ON ACADEMIC FEMINISM; OR, FROM REVOLUTION TO DECONSTRUCTION ................................................................................................ 138 FOUCAULT: THE INITIAL POINT OF CONTACT ...................................................... 139 Michel Foucault and Marxism/Neo-Marxism.................................................. 139 PSYCHOANALYSIS AS AN IMPORTANT PRECURSOR TO DECONSTRUCTION ............ 141 Jacques Lacan and Psychoanalysis................................................................. 141 Luce Irigaray and Psychoanalysis................................................................... 143 First Glimpses of Poststructuralism in Australian Texts................................. 145 Exchange Between French and Australian Feminisms ................................... 151 Unique Australian Feminism........................................................................... 154 New Australian Feminism................................................................................ 156 REACTION AGAINST POSTSTRUCTURALISM........................................................... 158 Theory/Practice Debate................................................................................... 159 Conflation of Post-discourses ...................................................................... 159 The Need for Theory.................................................................................... 162 AUSTRALIAN FEMINISTS AND THEORY ................................................................. 167 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 169 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 172 SOME CRITICAL FINDINGS .................................................................................... 173 CONCLUDING REMARKS ....................................................................................... 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................. 183
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that certain kinds of commentary ostensibly dedicated to conferring artistic legitimacy on the music in effect reshape it so that it can be more easily fitted into a political economy.
Abstract: This article is part of a larger attempt to map the movement of jazz within its cultural field, and as such is less concerned with its musicological properties than with the means of its production, consumption and the associated technology and rhetoric. It is the last of these that I am most interested in just here: the question of finding appropriate ways of talking about jazz. I want to suggest that certain kinds of commentary ostensibly dedicated to conferring artistic legitimacy on the music in effect reshape it so that it can be more easily fitted into a political economy.
18 citations