The Subject in Question: The Evolution of 'Woman' in Feminist Theory
25 Pages Posted: 1 Aug 2011 Last revised: 5 Aug 2011
Date Written: 2011
Abstract
Perhaps the central question in feminist theory since Beauvoir is the identity of the feminine subject. Every approach to feminist theory articulated in the wake of The Second Sex has claimed to forumlate a distinctive approach to the subject that supercedes and repudiates previous conceptions. In this paper I develop an alternative approach by arguing that the evolution of the feminine subject is a consistent process in which each new conception builds on the previous conceptions rather than reversing them. Focusing on the work of the French feminist who followed Beauvoir I argue for a continuity in their approaches to the subject that builds on rather than rejects that of Beauvoir.
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