Section: Topic 5 - From Empire to Decolonial Feminism | POL361 - Gender and Politics - 2023/24

Section outline

- Select activity TOPIC 5 - Overview LECTURE: 23 FEBRUARY (WEEK 5) S...
  
  TOPIC 5 - Overview
  Lecture: 23 February (week 5)
  Seminar: 29 February - 1March (week 6)
  
  James Sant, Captain Colin Mackenzie (c.1842). Oil paint on canvas. Here you can read more about the exhibition, "Artist and Empire" at Tate Britain, which exhibited this work.
  
  In approaching imperialism, we examine how the project of modernity and ideas of progress are underpinned not necessarily by rationality, but its negation: primitive body and desires, atavistic states of being (“living like brutes”). The global order and its project of domination is ultimately haunted by the Other, constructed through the relation between gender, race and class. By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
  Explain how race, gender and class are articulated categories that come into existence in historical relations to each other, with specific reference to imperialism
  Identify the ways in which the nation is gendered
  Explore the significance of 'hegemonic masculinity'
  Assess arguments for a decolonial feminism
- Select activity Lecture Slides Topic 5
  
  Lecture Slides Topic 5 File
  
  These are the powerpoint slides for the lecture on topic 5 - From Empire to Decolonial Feminism
  
  8.1 MB
- Select activity Week 6 Seminar / Student Handout
  
  Week 6 Seminar / Student Handout File
  
  76.0 KB
- Select activity TOPIC 5 - Seminar Preparation PREPARATION FOR THE ...
  
  TOPIC 5 - Seminar Preparation
  
  Preparation for the seminar
  1) Attend and take notes on the lecture.
  2) Read and take notes on the following core reading:
  R.W. Connell (2005) Globalisation, Imperialism, and masculinities, in Michael S. Kimmel, Jeff Hearn and R.W. Connell (Eds.)Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities, pp. 71-89. Ebook available via QMUL Library.
  Please choose ONE of the following three articles. These are important interventions on feminism and Third World women and decolonial feminism.
  Chandra T. Mohanty (1988) Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Feminist Review 30, pp.61-88.
  María Lugones (2010) Toward a decolonial feminism. Hypatia 25(4), pp. 742-759.
  Françoise Vergès (2021) “Taking Sides: Decolonial Feminism” in A decolonial feminism. London: Pluto Press, pp. 4-42.
  3) Finally, feel free to also read and take notes on the following additional reading for the topic:
  Anne McClintock (1995) “The Lay of the Land: Genealogies of Imperialism,” in Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. New York: Routledge, pp. 21-74.
  Nira Yuval-Davis (1997) “Theorising Gender and the Nation, in Gender and Nation. London: Sage, pp. 1-25.
  Patricia Hill Collins (1998) It's All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation. Hypatia 13(3), pp. 62-82.
  Seminar discussion (Alaya's seminars)
  1) How did imperialism (the idea underpinning colonisation and colonial practices) and globalisation construct masculinities and feminities? How did it transform gender relations?
  
  2) Mohanty, Lugones and Vergès call for decolonising gender and feminism, with Lugones and Vergès offering us new ways of conceptualising resistance and resistant subjectivities. How do these authors develop their argument? What idea(s) did you find the most powerful? Why? What do you think they missed out?
- Select activity TOPIC 5 - Supplementary ReadingValerie Amos and Pr...
  
  TOPIC 5 - Supplementary Reading
  Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar (1984) Challenging Imperial Feminism. Feminist Review 17, pp. 3-19.
  Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1985) Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism. Critical Inquiry 12(1), pp. 243-261.
  Deniz Kandiyoti (1991) Identity and its Discontents: Women and the Nation. Millennium 20(3), pp. 429-443.
  Nira Yuval-Davis (1997) Gender and Nation. London: Sage.
  Afsaneh Najmabadi (1998) “Crafting an educated housewife in Iran,” in Lila Abu-Lughod (Ed.) Remaking Women, Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 91-125.
  Lila Abu-Lughod (1998) “Feminist Longings and Postcolonial Conditions,” in Lila Abu-Lughod (Ed.) Remaking Women, Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 3-32.
  Chandra T. Mohanty (1988) Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Feminist Review 30, pp.61-88.
  Sara Ahmed (2000) Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality. London and New York: Routledge.
  Harriet Evans (2002) "Past, Perfect or Imperfect: Changing Images of the Ideal Wife," in Brownell, Susan, Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Thomas Laqueur (Eds.) (2002) Chinese femininities/Chinese masculinities: A reader. Vol. 4. University of California Press.
  William Jankowiak (2002) "Proper Men and Proper Women: Parental Affection in the Chinese Family," in Brownell, Susan, Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Thomas Laqueur (Eds.) (2002) Chinese femininities/Chinese masculinities: A reader. Vol. 4. University of California Press.
  Chandra T. Mohanty (2002) Under Western Eyes Revisited: Feminist Solidarity Through Anticapitalist Struggles. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28(2), pp. 499-535.
  Ann Laura Stoler (2002) Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  Chandra T. Mohanty (2004) Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practising Solidarity. Durham: Duke University Press. Print copy available at QMUL Library.
  María Lugones (2007) Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System. Hypatia 22(1), pp. 186–219.
  Freya Schiwy (2007) Decolonization and the question of subjectivity. Cultural Studies 21(2-3), pp. 271-294.
  Deniz Kandiyoti (2007) The politics of gender and the Soviet paradox: neither colonized, nor modern? Central Asian Survey 26(4), pp. 601-623.
  María Lugones (2008) The Coloniality of Gender. Worlds & Knowledges Otherwise.
  María Lugones (2010) Toward a decolonial feminism. Hypatia 25(4), pp. 742-759.
  Amal Treacher Kabesh (2013) Postcolonial Masculinities: Emotions, Histories and Ethics. Farnham: Ashgate.
  Catherine Hall (2014) Gendering Property, Racing Capital. History Workshop Journal 78(1), pp. 22–38.
  Aniruddha Dutta and Raina Roy (2014) Decolonizing transgender in India: Some reflections. Transgender Studies Quarterly 1(3), pp. 320-337.
  Mia Fischer (2016) Contingent belonging: Chelsea Manning, transpatriotism, and iterations of empire. Sexualities19(5/6).
  Alyosxa Tudor (2017) Dimensions of Transnationalism. Feminist Review 117, pp. 201-40.
  Françoise Vergès (2021) A decolonial feminism. London: Pluto Press.
- Select activity Latin American Decolonial Feminisms: challenges and opportunities
  
  Latin American Decolonial Feminisms: challenges and opportunities URL
  
  For those of you with an interest in Latin America. Dr Valentina Aparicio (School of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London) reflects on the IHSS Workshop on Latin American Decolonial Feminisms, held at QMUL in 2022. At the bottom of the page there are links where you can watch recordings of the different panels.

Module Convenor

Teaching Team

Topic 5 - From Empire to Decolonial Feminism

Section outline

TOPIC 5 - Supplementary Reading