1st Edition

Nostalgia and Sexual Difference (RLE Feminist Theory) The Resistance to Contemporary Feminism

Edited By Janice Doane, DEVON HODGES Copyright 1987
169 Pages
by Routledge

192 Pages
by Routledge

169 Pages
by Routledge

Dissatisfaction with the present can cause people to gaze nostalgically back to an idealized past; that nostalgia pervades contemporary rhetoric. In lamenting the ‘degeneracy’ of present-day America, social and literary critics as well as contemporary novelists often choose as their scapegoat the women’s movement and its increasing influence. Doane and Hodges show us how these social observers... Read more

Preface.  Introduction.  1. Monstrous Amazons  2. Feminism and the Decline of America  3. Women and the World According to Garp  4. The Anxiety of Feminist Influence  5. Feminist Scholarship as Shadow Work  6. Family Feud.  Postscript.  Notes.  References.  Index.

Biography

Janice Doane (Author) , Devon Hodges (Author)

‘In a series of striking readings, the authors offer an important reinterpretation of contemporary "nostalgic" texts. The book is an astute work of cultural criticism, one of those that accomplishes a major re-vision of the received wisdom on the subject.’ – Joan W. Scott, Institute for Advanced Study

‘Doane and Hodges take on a number of major figures and – entirely without pretension of cant – discover fatuities and covertly defensive patriarchal strategies everywhere. I think readers will enjoy this understated audacity and that Nostalgia and Sexual Difference will be read, argued with, and accepted into the lively ongoing conversation which is feminist theory today.’ – Ann Snitow, The New School for Social Research