1st Edition
The Oppositional Imagination (RLE Feminist Theory) Feminism, Critique and Political Theory
The Oppositional Imagination draws together elements from Marxism, analytical philosophy, post-structuralism, and post-colonial criticism to analyse the elusive interplay of culture and power. It focuses its attention on cultural domination, opposition and evasion in the realm of sex and gender.
Joan Cocks reflects on questions crucial to both political theorists and feminists: the relationship between political theory and practical life; the possibility of bringing together a philosophical and a literary language to comprehend and evoke concrete experience; and the reconciliation of radical political commitment with an appreciation of shades of grey in the social world. She explores the variety of ways in which power and eroticism intersect; the liberating and tyrannical impulses of marginal cultures; and the place of the loyalist, the eccentric, the critic, the traitor, and the rebel in the sexual struggle.
The Oppositional Imagination reaffirms the centrality of political theory and feminist practice while at the same time challenging certain of their key principles in thought-provoking ways.
Acknowledgments. Introduction: Things in Twos are Sometimes, but not Always, Dichotomies. Part 1: On Theory 1. Consciousness and Culture 2. Dominative Power 3. Criticism and Resistance 4. Theory’s Practical Relation to the World 5. Theory’s Contemplative Relation to the World Part 2: On Masculine/Feminine 6. Point and Counterpoint 7. Impositions and Evasions 8. Power, desire and the Meaning of the Body 9. A Regime Without a Master 10. Loyalists, Eccentrics, Critics, Traitors and Rebels. Conclusion: On Practice. Notes. Index.
Biography
Joan Cocks
