131-218 Contesting Genders: From Greer to Queer

Note

Available as 131-318 at 3rd-year level.

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Subject Description

This subject examines the history of the Western feminist movement from 1970 to the present. It explores the key theoretical ideas and the various social currents which gave rise to the women's liberation movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Through the works of writers like Germaine Greer, Juliet Mitchell, Kate Millett and Adrienne Rich, the contribution of radical feminists, liberal and Marxist feminists to the formulation of a feminist politics will be explored. The challenge of post-colonial critiques, which emerged in response to, and from within the movement, will be a key consideration in the subject. In the final part of the subject, the influence of post modernism and post structuralism within feminist analyses will be considered. This will be done by interrogating the contribution of queer theory towards shaping a feminist politics for the next millennium, especially in relation to psychoanalysis and the construction of subjectivities.

Assessment

Tutorial participation and a 500 word class paper (10%), 2,500 word research essay (50%), and a reflective essay of 2,000 words (30%).