What Ails Feminist Criticism?

Gubar, Susan

doi:10.1086/448900

Cited by 120 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…I identify a possibility of literature's reinvigoration in emergent narratives of feminist theorising, particularly in a certain ethical capacity of enchantment precipitated by its affective experience, which mirrors the 'wonder' that sexual difference incites. I consider this contention alongside several observations on the focal displacement of literature as a site of feminist theorising since the 1990s (Gubar, 1998;Moi, 2008) to more broadly trace the supposedly attenuated relationship between literature and feminist theory where the exponential growth in research on feminist literary theory and criticism in the 1970s and 1980s was observed to abate as the wider field of feminist studies approached the new millennium. Finally, I argue that the questions of literature that endure in contemporary feminist theory, in their persistent capacity for initiating alternative frames of reference for the feminist project, demonstrate a compelling resonance to the anticipatory potential that the afterlife of sexual difference puts forth for feminism.…”

Section: Introduction: Anticipation's Impassementioning

confidence: 92%

“…12 This is the temporal moment at which I will situate the resonant afterlife of sexual difference in my methodological re-narration alongside the literary: it is an instance in which a possible reinvigoration in the interest of literature has become apparent in some emergent narratives of feminist theory. I speak of literature's reinvigoration in acknowledgement of the bleak remarks by feminist scholars such as Susan Gubar (1998) and Toril Moi (2008), who write that the central position that literary theory and criticism occupied in the wider field of feminist thought gradually diminished from the 1990s onwards. In contrast to the 1970s and 1980s, during which feminist literary theory and criticism experienced an exciting period of rapid flourishing, it seemed as if the forefront of feminist studies had shifted away from the once-influential discourses of literary criticism in the transition into the new century.…”

Section: Conclusion: Literature's Rejuvenationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anticipations, afterlives: On the temporal and affective reorientations of sexual difference

2018

Feminist Theory

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This article focuses on the affective potential of anticipation, in its ready endorsement of the unknown, as a formative lens for theorising feminist temporalities. I draw from earlier readings of Luce Irigaray's conceptual paradigm of sexual difference to examine how its articulation of a feminist future that is inherently unknowable might contribute to recent debates on the temporalities of feminist thought. The article presents two broadly intersecting lines of argument. I first emphasise the continued centrality of sexual difference in its anticipatory imperative for thinking feminism but-or perhaps, especially-through a contradictory retrieval of the term that re-narrates its contemporary significance. In other words, it is precisely the retroactive position that sexual difference occupies that exacts a critical reorientation of existing modes of feminist temporalities; it moreover does so as a theoretical construct that altogether circumvents our understanding of feminism as a progress narrative. Secondly, I build upon Drucilla Cornell's contentions in Beyond Accommodation that the unknown futurity inaugurated by the trajectories of sexual difference demands a dimension of inquiry that is inevitably aesthetic (1991). I identify a possibility of literature's reinvigoration in emergence narratives of feminist theorising, particularly in a certain ethical capacity precipitated by its affective experience of enchantment, which mirrors the 'wonder' that sexual difference incites. If we are to continue to use literature as a conducive space of feminist analysis, then it is the forward-looking perpetuation of feminist narratives that must also be rethought for their investment in the multiple contingencies of anticipation.

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Section: Introduction: Anticipation's Impassementioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Conclusion: Literature's Rejuvenationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticipations, afterlives: On the temporal and affective reorientations of sexual difference

2018

Feminist Theory

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“…is representative of studies in girl teen film that use a methodology of "critique" (Gubar, 1998: 882). Susan Gubar (1998) Girls in Love (Marie Maggenti, 1995), Foxfire (Annette Haywood -Carter, 1996), Girls Town (Jim McKay, 1996) and All Over Me (Alex Sichel, 1997),…”

Section: Girl Teen Filmmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aesthetic Pleasures of Girl Teen Film

Colling¹

2017

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What is 'fun' about the Hollywood version of girlhood? What kinds of pleasure does this version of girlhood invite us to enjoy? Through re-evaluating notions of pleasure and fun, this thesis forms a study of Hollywood girl teen films between 2000-2010. The aesthetic dimensions of commercial girl teen films are particularly underexplored. This study identifies the key aesthetics of girl teen film and articulates the specific types of tactile and kinaesthetic pleasures they are designed to create. Working outside of gendered hierarchies of pleasure and aesthetics, the thesis focuses on 'look and feel'. The study draws on recent literature that prioritises the relationship between film, the body, and affect, in conjunction with Susanne Langer's (1953, 1957) concept and Richard Dyer's (2002) application of 'embodiments of feeling', to present a new way of understanding the 'fun' in girl

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“…The present moment in animal studies brings to mind the quite similar disciplinary “disputes” that went on within feminist theoretical circles in the late 1990s. Anyone interested in the way that high theory is regularly coming under suspicion in animal studies right now would do well to revisit the exchange between Susan Gubar and Robyn Wiegman in Critical Inquiry , for example, around the question, “What Ails Feminist Criticism?” (Gubar ; Wiegman ).…”

Section: Disciplinary Becomings: Horizons Of Knowledge In Animal Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%