Showing papers on "Ideology published in 1990"

The ideology of the aesthetic

Abstract: Introduction. 1. Free Particulars. 2. The Law of the Heart: Shaftesbury, Hume, Burke. 3. The Kantian Imaginary. 4. Schiller and Hegemony. 5. The World as Artefact: Fichte, Schelling, Hegel. 6. The Death of Desire: Arthur Schopenhauer. 7. Absolutte Ironies: Sren Kierkegaard. 8. The Marxist Sublime. 9. True Illusions: Friedrich Nietzshe. 10. The Name of the Father: Sigmund Freud. 11. The Politics of Being: Martin Heidegger. 12. The Marxist Rabbi: Walter Benjamin. 13. Art After Auschwitz: Theodor Adorno. 14. From the Polis to Postmodernism. Index.

Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry

Abstract: Conventional wisdom has it that the sciences, properly pursued, constitute a pure, value-free method of obtaining knowledge about the natural world. In light of the social and normative dimensions of many scientific debates, Helen Longino finds that general accounts of scientific methodology cannot support this common belief. Focusing on the notion of evidence, the author argues that a methodology powerful enough to account for theories of any scope and depth is incapable of ruling out the influence of social and cultural values in the very structuring of knowledge. The objectivity of scientific inquiry can nevertheless be maintained, she proposes, by understanding scientific inquiry as a social rather than an individual process. Seeking to open a dialogue between methodologists and social critics of the sciences, Longino develops this concept of "contextual empiricism" in an analysis of research programs that have drawn criticism from feminists. Examining theories of human evolution and of prenatal hormonal determination of "gender-role" behavior, of sex differences in cognition, and of sexual orientation, the author shows how assumptions laden with social values affect the description, presentation, and interpretation of data. In particular, Longino argues that research on the hormonal basis of "sex-differentiated behavior" involves assumptions not only about gender relations but also about human action and agency. She concludes with a discussion of the relation between science, values, and ideology, based on the work of Habermas, Foucault, Keller, and Haraway.

State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in Its Place

Abstract: Preface and Acknowledgements. General Introduction. Part I. On Marxist Theories of Law, the State, and their Relative Autonomy from the Capitalist Economy and Class Struggles:. 1. Recent Theories of the Capitalist State. 2. Recent Theories of Law, the State, and Juridico-Political Ideology. 3. Marxism, Economic Determinism, and Relative Autonomy. Part II. Political Representation, Social Bases, and State Forms: Corporatism, Parliamentarism, and the National Interest:. 4. Corporatism, Parliamentarism, and Social Democracy. 5. Capitalist States, Capitalist Interests, and the Rule of Capital. 6. The Democratic State and the National Interest. Part III. The Value Form, The Capitalist State, and Hegemonic Projects: From State Forms and Functions to the State as Strategy:. 7. Accumulation Strategies, State Forms, and Hegemonic Projects. 8. Poulantzas and Foucault on Power and Strategy. 9. The State as Strategy. Part IV. Putting States in their Place: Towards a Strategic-Relational Theory of Societalization:. 10. Anti-Marxist Reinstatement and Post-Marxist Deconstruction. 11. Societalization, Regulation, and Self-Reference. 12. Putting States in their Place. Selected Writings of Bob Jessop. General Bibliography. Index.

Getting to the 21st century: Voluntary action and the global agenda

Abstract: This critique of current development policies and ideology provides alternative approaches for building a sustainable and just society for the new millennium.

Green Political Thought

Abstract: Acknowledgements Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the Third Edition Introduction Part 1: Thinking About Ecologism: sustainable societies reasons to care for the environment crisis and its political-strategic consequences universality and social change lessons from nature left and right: communism and capitalism historical specificity conclusion Part 2: Philosophical Foundations: Ethics: a code of conduct Ethics: a state of being anthropocentrism Part 3: The Sustainable Society: limits to growth possible positions more problems with growth questioning consumption questioning consumption: need questioning consumption: population questioning consumption: technology energy trade and travel work bioregionalism agriculture diversity decentralization and its limits Part 4: Strategies for Green Change: democracy and authoritarianism action through and around the legislature lifestyle communities direct action class conclusion Part 5: Ecologism and Other Ideologies: liberalism conservatism socialism eco-feminism conclusion. Conclusion Bibliography Index

Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance

Abstract: Over the past five centuries, advances in Western understanding of and control over the material world have strongly influenced European responses to non-Western peoples and cultures. In Machines as the Measure of Men, Michael Adas explores the ways in which European perceptions of their scientific and technological superiority shaped their interactions with people overseas. Adopting a broad, comparative perspective, he analyzes European responses to the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China, cultures that they judged to represent lower levels of material mastery and social organization. Beginning with the early decades of overseas expansion in the sixteenth century, Adas traces the impact of scientific and technological advances on European attitudes toward Asians and Africans and on their policies for dealing with colonized societies. He concentrates on British and French thinking in the nineteenth century, when, he maintains, scientific and technological measures of human worth played a critical role in shaping arguments for the notion of racial supremacy and the "civilizing mission" ideology which were used to justify Europe's domination of the globe. Finally, he examines the reasons why many Europeans grew dissatisfied with and even rejected this gauge of human worth after World War I, and explains why it has remained important to Americans. Showing how the scientific and industrial revolutions contributed to the development of European imperialist ideologies, Machines as the Measure of Men highlights the cultural factors that have nurtured disdain for non-Western accomplishments and value systems. It also indicates how these attitudes, in shaping policies that restricted the diffusion of scientific knowledge, have perpetuated themselves, and contributed significantly to chronic underdevelopment throughout the developing world. Adas's far-reaching and provocative book will be compelling reading for all who are concerned about the history of Western imperialism and its legacies.

The idea of higher education

Abstract: Higher education - educationally speaking: the missing element a contested concept?. The epistemological undermining of higher education: witchcraft, astrology and knowledge policies the truth, the whole truth. The sociological undermining of higher education: ivory tower? living with ideology. Key concepts: culture rationality research academic freedom. Restoring higher education: beyond teaching and learning a critical business redrawing interdisciplinarity a liberal higher education regained.

British Cultural Studies: An Introduction

Abstract: Is a comprehensive introduction to the British tradition of cultural studies. Turner offers an accessible overview of the central themes that have informed British cultural studies: language, semiotics, Marxism and ideology, individualism, subjectivity and discourse. Beginning with a history of cultural studies, Turner discusses the work of such pioneers as Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart, E. P.Thompson, Stuart Hall and the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. He then explores the central theorists and categories of British cultural studies: texts and contexts; audience; everyday life; ideology; politics, gender and race. The third edition of this successful text has been fully revised and updated to include: * How to apply the principles of cultural studies and how to read a text * An overview of recent ethnographic studies * Discussion of anthropological theories of consumption * Questions of identity and new ethnicities * How to do cultural studies, and an evaluation of recent research methodologies * A fully updated and comprehensive bibliography.

Ideology and the New Social Movements

Abstract: New social movements - major themes general theories of social movements - functionalism and Marxism sociological responses to the rise of new social movements varieties of ideology within the ecology movement movements and parties - problems of organization and mobilization social closure and political participation.

Development theory and the three worlds

Abstract: Part 1 Crises in development theory and in the world: crisis of theory and theories of crisis three worlds of crises the state - problem or solution? Part 2 Eurocentrism and development thinking: development ideologies in Western history the rise and decline of development economics the modernization paradigm. Part 3 The voice of the Third World: academic imperialism and intellectual dependence the rise of dependencia the indigenization of development thinking - Latin America in search of otherness, the sociology of civilizations - India and China, the battle for decolonization in Africa. Part 4 The globalization of development theory: from dependance to interdependance analyzing world development development stategies and the world system. Part 5 Dimensions of another development: the sociology and politics of anotherness egalitarian development self-reliant development ecodevelopment ethnodevelopment. Part 6 Transcending the European model: development theory returns to Europe development options in Western Europe the rise of market ideology in the East - Soviet development thinking. Part 7 Reorientations in development theory: one field or many? transcending Eurocentrism and endogenism three worlds of development.

The ‘Third Wave’: education and the ideology of parentocracy

Abstract: In this paper it will be argued that we are entering a ‘third wave’ in the socio‐historical development of British education and that similar trends are also evident in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The ‘first wave’ can be characterised by the rise of mass schooling for the working classes in the late nineteenth century. The ‘second wave’ involved a shift from the provision of education based upon what Dewey called the “feudal dogma of social predestination” to one organised on the basis of individual merit and achievement. What is distinct about the ‘third wave’ is the move towards a system whereby the education a child receives must conform to the wealth and wishes of parents rather than the abilities and efforts of pupils. In other words, we have witnessed a shift away from the ‘ideology of meritocracy’ to what I will call the ‘ideology of parentocracy’. This paper will consider the evidence to support this conclusion and examine its sociological significance.

The politics of women's biology

Abstract: "Exposing the ideological bases of the medical/scientific information (and disinformation) we receive, Hubbard ...gives us a book sophisticated in its analysis but accessible in its style." --Ms. Magazine For a range of historical and contemporary issues in eugenics, human evolution, and procreative technology, Ruth Hubbard explains why scientific descriptions and choices should not generalize human, or female, attributes without acknowledging the realities of people's lives. Sophisticated in its analysis, yet not at all technical in its exposition, this book will find a wide readership among feminists, the general public, and the scientific community.

Risk as a forensic resource

Abstract: THE WORD RISK HAS ACQUIRED NEW PROMINENCE. One popu lar explanation is that risks from technology have greatly increased. They have indeed, in all the industrial world. But some other risks have decreased, at least if the figures for mortality and morbidity mean anything. So perhaps what needs to be ex plained is the greater political awareness from technology in Amer ica, greater awareness than in France,1 and presumably greater than in Russia before Chernobyl. Some would explain the new use of the vocabulary of risk in American politics by the revival of laissez-faire liberal economics. In this volume Theodore Lowi shows how the nineteenth-century idea of the merits of individual risk taking have been reintroduced into American politics. Praise of risk taking invokes the virtues of frontier morality to interrupt the long, slow move to establish collective responsibility for accidents. However, this ideological change itself needs to be explained. American polit ical history does not account for the market ideology renascent in Britain, and in China, and more recently in Russia and Eastern Europe. The question is why a changed political debate goes across national boundaries, couched in terms of risk. The answer here suggested is that a culture needs a common forensic vocabulary with which to hold persons accountable and further that risk is a word that admirably serves the forensic needs of the new global culture. The object of this essay is to situate the notion of risk by comparing its current usage with similar concepts in other times and places. In

The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth Century America

Abstract: In this acclaimed historical study, Alexander Saxton establishes the centrality of white racism to American politics and culture. Examining images of race at a popular level - from blackface minstrelsy to the construction of the Western hero, from grassroots political culture to dime novels - as well as the philosophical constructions of the political elite, it is a powerful and comprehensive account of the ideological forces at work in the formation of modern America.

Patriarchal ideology and wife beating: a test of a feminist hypothesis.

Abstract: Feminist theory suggests that husbands who adhere to an ideology of familial patriarchy are more likely to beat their wives than husbands who do not adhere to such an ideology. This research provides quantitative data from a representative sample survey of women in the general population that support the feminist thesis. The results also indicate that husbands with relatively low incomes, low educational attainment, and low-status jobs were significantly more likely than higher status husbands to espouse such an ideology. Language: en

Sex and Psyche: Gender and Self Viewed Cross-Culturally

Abstract: PART ONE: BACKGROUND Issues and Strategies in Cross-Cultural Psychology Gender, Self-Concept, and Sex Role Ideology PART TWO: TACTICS Research Plan and Methods PART THREE: DISCOVERIES Sex Role Ideology Affective Meanings of Self-Concepts Masculinity/Femininity of Self-Concepts Diversity in Masculinity/Femininity of Self-Concepts PART FOUR: OUTCOMES Summary Of Findings Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences Retrospect and Prospect A Broader View

Wording, Meaning, and Linguistic Ideology

Abstract: Two seemingly disparate areas ofEnglish language structure-the grammar ofreported speech and of textual cohesion-are functionally related in that both entail a distinction between "wording" and "meaning." This is consistent with the Western ideological disjunction between language and reality, talk and action. Neither these language structures nor this linguistic ideology are found among the Ngarinyin people of northwestern Australia, suggesting a Whorfian hypothesis about their possible interrelationship.

Power and ideology in American sport : a critical perspective

Abstract: This popular, widely acclaimed analysis of sport in America is now completely updated, with expanded treatment of contemporary issues. "Power and Ideology in American Sport, Second Edition" addresses a wide range of topics, including-how sport is embedded in the social, political, and economic structures of American society; -how the sporting experience is shaped by powerful individuals as well as ordinary people; and as such-how sport both unifies and segregates individuals, social classes, racial and ethnic groups, and competing political loyalties.Sage blends sociology, history, and cultural criticism into an innovative synthesis that will change the way readers think about sports. Clear, accessible, and passionately argued, "Power and Ideology in American Sport, Second Edition, " challenges the status quo of big-time sport and points the way toward a more humane, equitable sporting culture.

Political awareness, elite opinion leadership, and the mass survey response

Abstract: Political awareness affects virtually every aspect of citizens' political attitudes and voting behavior. Among its effects are greater attitude stability, greater ideological consistency, and greater support for a nation's “mainstream” values. Yet there exists no comprehensive explanation of why political awareness has the pervasive effects that it has. Nor is there agreement on how the concept of political awareness should be conceptualized and measured. This article addresses both concerns. First, it draws on ideas from voting, belief-system, and other studies to develop a general theory of the effects of awareness. This account centers on how citizens use cues and other information from political elites to translate their general value orientations into support for particular polices. Second, the article argues that, on both theoretical and empirical grounds, political awareness is best measured by simple tests of factual information about politics.

The news paradigm and the ideology of objectivity: A socialist at the wall street journal

Abstract: This study examines the news paradigm as an occupational ideology whose major feature is the principle of objectivity, and the larger hegemonic function of that paradigm. An anomalous case is analyzed to illustrate paradigmatic repair: A. Kent MacDougall caused a controversy in the journalistic community and threatened the paradigmatic norm of objectivity when he revealed that he had been a radical socialist during his ten years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Three types of repair are examined: (a) disengaging and distancing the threatening values from the reporter's work, (b) reasserting the ability of journalistic routines to prevent threatening values from “distorting” the news, and (c) marginalizing the man and his message, making both appear ineffective.

State versus Islam: Malay families, women's bodies, and the body politic in Malaysia

Abstract: This article examines the social effects of the secular state and Islamic resurgence as they negotiate different models of Malay women, kinship, and identity. Widely viewed as a politically radical force, Islamic revivalism is here interpreted as a middle-class ideology mediating changes in gender and domestic relations linked to official policies. Neither simply “resisting” nor “passive,” upwardly mobile women have come to identify with revivalist ideals of motherhood, male authority, and the imagined body politic. [state/body politic, Islamic revivalism, gender and the family, social agency, class and social change, Malaysia/Islamic societies]

Networks of Political Action: Toward Theory Construction

Abstract: The dominant paradigm in political participation studies largely ignores the microcontexts within which citizens are embedded Drawing on generic processes of persuasion and selection, this study specifies six testable research hypotheses about individuals' attitudes and behaviors as consequences of theform and content of their ego-centric networks Using the network measuresfrom the 1987 General Social Survey, respondents'perceptions oftheir egocentric networks arefound to predict involvement in national elections The morefrequently people discuss political matters with their intimates, the greater their interest and participation in national campaigns and voting The partisan composition of the network strongly influences their participation, even after controlling for party identifications and selection effects of social attributes However, respondents' closeness to network others has few substantial effects, and most of the interaction terms are not significant For members of voluntary associations, having at least one other with whom theyfrequently discuss politics strongly boosts mobilization in internal organizational affairs and in the local community, again controllingfor social attnbutes Coiled around the heart of politics in liberal democratic societies is the participation of ordinary citizens in voting for government officials and engaging in efforts, to shape public policies Populist theories of democracy require that the citizenry interact continually with officials about their public policy concerns (Barber 1984; Pateman 1970; Riker 1982) Local participatory arenas grass-roots parties, voluntary associations, industrial workplaces constitute institutions for aggregating popular preferences They give citizens practical opportunities to acquire democratic norms, skills, and experiences These civic education functions of American civil society have been remarked upon by political commentators since Tocqueville (1945:115) Mass participation is seen as an indispensable ingredient for preserving democratic governance of society Most empirical assessments of citizen involvement in political institutions implicitly assume some multivariate theory of individual decision making Some of these explanations emphasize primarily the WMany thanks to James A Davis, Peter Marsden, and two anonymous refereesfor their helpful comments on an earlier version The data analyzed in this article comefrom the 1987 General Social Survey, James A Davis and Tom W Smith, principal investigators A module of new items was designed by a subcommittee of Lawrence Bobo, Thomas Guterbock, and myself, with assistancefrom DuaneAlwin I thank Tom Guterbockfor providing a copy of the data Direct correspondence to the author at the Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 0) The University of North Carolina Press Social Forces, June 1990, 68(4):1041-1063 This content downloaded from 1575539220 on Fri, 02 Sep 2016 05:59:36 UTC All use subject to http://aboutjstororg/terms 1042 / Social Forces 68:4, June 1990 social forces impinging upon the citizen, while others highlight the role of social psychological perceptions and beliefs Yet very few theories consider how networks of interaction among citizens affect the observed pattems of voting and participation By neglecting these connections among people, incomplete accounts of conventional political behaviors result This article considers how a theory that explicitly includes network relationships could enrich our knowledge of citizen politics The incremental strategy of theory construction followed in this article begins with a search for fundamental principles of network formation and the effects of the form and content of network structures on individual behaviors; an explicit stipulation of research hypotheses about how these generic processes explain network political phenomena; a review of earlier efforts to include network concepts in political analysis; an exploration of some recently created social network data pertaining to electoral and voluntary organization political participation; and, finally, an evaluation of the utility of these basic theoretical principles for broader classes of social behavior This strategy of interweaving theoretical and empirical analyses may ultimately lead to sounder knowledge about individual social structural relations Theory construction begins with consideration of two generic processes fundamental to any comprehensive explanation of how individuals' social relationships shape their attitudes and activities: persuasion and selection Persuasion Processes In routine interactions with other individuals and institutions, people are continually bombarded by recurrent efforts that seek to change their beliefs and behaviors Persuasion occurs when one social actor intentionally transmits information to another that changes the latter's actions from what would have occurred in the absence of that information It is the influence dimension of social power that relies on the application of information, rather than the domination dimension that uses sanctions to control others (Ktioke 1990b, Chapter 1) Persuasion whether taking place in a classroom, used car lot, or medical clinic operates by providing information intended to alter an actor's perception of the connection between an action and its consequences It requires a structural relationship between two or more actors, because a communication channel must exist between influencer and influencee For persuasion efforts to be effective, the target of influence must believe the information to be credible and/or the source to be trustworthy Impersonal media may carry less weight than personal contacts with others to whom one has intense emotional and instrumental connections Hence, the networks of stable social relationships among social actors are critical to any theoretical explanation of how attitudes and actions are formed and changed Balance theories (Anderson 1979; Heider 1944), contagion (Burt 1987b), social comparison (Erickson 1988), and social evaluation theories (Gartrell 1987) each emphasize that individuals' perceptions of their significant others' preferences strongly influence how a person comes to view his or her world As sources of material, emotional, and normative rewards, the other actors in one's personal network provide the meaningful standards against which one can evaluate his or her own sensations and performances People constantly compare themselves to those with whom they have close ties and seek to emulate the attitudes and actions of these intimates The recurrent communications within these small, intimate networks construct the grand interpretive schemas that anchor people to larger social systems This content downloaded from 1575539220 on Fri, 02 Sep 2016 05:59:36 UTC All use subject to http://aboutjstororg/terms Networks of Political Action / 1043 The collectively shared thoughts and deeds of network members are powerfully compelled toward uniformity by universal desires to conform to group norms and to avoid social sanctions for deviant behavior The consequence of successful mutual persuasion is social cohesion or solidarity Persuasion processes span many social arenas, ranging from fashions in clothing, to professional performance standards, to religious ideologies In principle, the acquisition of political opinions and actions should be no different The persuasive political effects of a social network can be stated as hypotheses that use a standard terminology An "ego-centric network" consists of a focal individual ("ego") and a set of others ('alters") to whom ego is directly connected by ties of varying intensity (eg, frequency of interaction; emotional depth) When the opinions and actions of an ego's alters are consistent (homogeneous), ego faces overwhelming social pressures to adopt the same preferences When the alters' orientations are divided, ego's preferences are most likely to be influenced by those with whom he or she is more closely tied than by the alters with whom ego has weaker links When the opposing preferences of alters are evenly balanced in intensity and strength of ties to ego, these conflicting social cues cannot be easily reconciled Ego is most likely to take a middling position, to vacillate, to delay a decision, or to remain uncommitted If indecision is psychologically painful, ego may seek other sources of information, and perhaps change his or her network by dropping some alters and picking up new ones Thus, variation in the intensity of affect and the political composition of an ego's network should be positively related to ego's conformity to the political orientations of his or her alters Stated as formal research hypotheses: (1) The more politically homogeneous an ego's alters, the more frequent the political interactions ego has with alters (2) The more politically homogeneous an ego's alters, the greater the similarity between ego's and alter's political attitudes and behaviors (3) The closer ego feels to alters and the more frequently ego discusses political matters with alters, the higher ego's political interest and the more frequent ego's participation in political activities The homogeneity effects are postulated to occur through mutual influence, that is, by ego and alter changing one another's views through discussion, argument, exemplification, and other persuasion processes However, ego-centric network homogeneity may also occur through the selection of partners who already hold compatible views, as described in the next section

Rethinking feminist organizations

Abstract: This article analyzes feminist organizations as a species of social movement organization. It identifies 10 dimensions for comparing feminist and nonfeminist organizations or for deriving types of feminist organizations and analyzing them. The dimensions are feminist ideology, feminist values, feminist goals, feminist outcomes (for members and society), founding circumstances, structure, practice, members and membership, scope and scale, and external relations (legal-corporate status, autonomy, funding, and network linkages). I argue that many scholars judge feminist organizations against an ideal type that is largely unattainable and that excessive attention has been paid to the issue of bureaucracy versus collectivism to the neglect of other organizational qualities. The varieties of ideology, form, and strategy that feminist organizations embody should be analyzed in relation to outcomes for women, the women's movement, and society. As has recently begun to occur, feminist scholars are encouraged to cl...

Harmony Ideology: Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village

Abstract: Contents 1 Part I. 2 3 4 Part II. 5 6 7 8 9 Part III. 10 11 12 13 Part IV. 14 15

Dance and the Body Politic in Northern Greece

Abstract: Valued for their sensual and social intensity, Greek dance-events are often also problematical for participants, giving rise to struggles over position, prestige, and reputation. Here Jane Cowan explores how the politics of gender is articulated through the body at these culturally central, yet until now ethnographically neglected, celebrations in a class-divided northern Greek town. Portraying the dance-event as both a highly structured and dynamic social arena, she approaches the human body not only as a sign to be deciphered but as a site of experience and an agent of practice.In describing the multiple ideologies of person, gender, and community that townspeople embody and explore as they dance, Cowan presents three different settings: the traditional wedding procession, the "Europeanized" formal evening dance of local civic associations, and the private party. She examines the practices of eating, drinking, talking, gifting, and dancing, and the verbal discourse through which celebrants make sense of each other's actions. Paying particular attention to points of tension and moments of misunderstanding, she analyzes in what ways these social situations pose different problems for men and women.

British cultural studies

Abstract: One of the markers of contemporary studies in the humanities and social sciences is the close, critical attention directed onto the mass media and popular culture. British cultural studies, emerging out of the expanded English university system in the 1970s, were among the first to develop and broadly disseminate the methodologies and approaches which made such attention possible. Focusing initially on the relations between language and ideology through the close analysis of media texts, before diversifying into a broad range of interdisciplinary activities - cultural theory, cultural history, ethnography, media studies, and the analysis of the social construction of gender, race and identity - British cultural studies has played a fundamental role in establishing the conceptual and theoretical agenda for studies of popular cultural forms and practices.

Domestic Individualism: Imagining Self in Nineteenth-Century America

Abstract: Gillian Brown's book probes the key relationship between domestic ideology and formulations of the self in nineteenth-century America. Arguing that domesticity institutes gender, class, and racial distinctions that govern masculine as well as feminine identity, Brown brilliantly alters, for literary critics, feminists, and cultural historians, the critical perspective from which nineteenth-century American literature and culture have been viewed. In this study of the domestic constitution of individualism, Brown traces how the values of interiority, order, privacy, and enclosure associated with the American home come to define selfhood in general. By analyzing writings by Stowe, Hawthorne, Melville, Fern, and Gilman, and by examining other contemporary cultural modes--abolitionism, consumerism, architecture, interior decorating, motherhood, mesmerism, hysteria, and agoraphobia--she reconfigures the parameters of both domesticity and the patterns of self it fashions. Unfolding a representational history of the domestic, Brown's work offers striking new readings of the literary texts as well as of the cultural contexts that they embody.

Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History

Abstract: "This collection fills a very long felt need, a fact which is reinforced by the generally very high quality of the contributions and the fast-growing reputation in international feminist circles of many of the authors."--Arjun Appadurai, University of Pennsylvania The political and social life of India in the last decade has given rise to a variety of questions concerning the nature and resilience of patriarchal systems in a transitional and post-colonial society. The contributors to this interdisciplinary volume recognize that every aspect of reality is gendered, and that such a recognition involves a dismantling of the ideological presuppositions of the so-called gender neutral ideologies, as well as the boundaries of individual disciplines. The first set of essays seeks to analyze the patriarchal discourses of a colonial society and includes an analysis of the shaping of Hindu-Aryan identity, the parameters of the discourse on widow-immolation, the "defeminization" of popular culture in nineteenth-century urban Calcutta, the nature of the reforms proposed by early women's journals in Hindi, and the implications of the nationalist movement and of Indo-Anglian leterature on middle-class patriarchal norms. The second set of articles relates to women of the productive classes--the reconstitution of patriarchies in the agrarian transition in Haryana, in the Oudh peasant movement, in the armed peasant struggle in Telangana, and among the working class in Bengal. The contributors explore the interrelation of patriarchies with political economy, law, religion, and culture, and suggest a different history of "reform" movements, and of class and gender relations. Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid are teachers of literature at Indraprastha College for Women, Delhi University. Together they have edited a collection of essays, Women and Culture. Kumkum Sangari is associate editor of the Journal of Arts and Ideas. Sudesh Vaid is the author of The Divided Mind: Studies in Select Novels of Defoe and Richardson.