Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity

Margaret A. McLaren is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Coordinator of Women's Studies at Rollins College.

• Acknowledgments 1. The Feminism and Foucault Debate: Stakes, Issues, Positions 2. Foucault, Feminism, and Norms Postmodernism and PoliticsFeminist CriticsGenealogy As CritiqueProblems With PowerFoucault's SkepticismConclusion: Foucault and Feminist Resistance 3. Foucault and the Subject of Feminism Feminist CriticsFoucault's Challenge to SubjectivityFoucault's RefusalFoucault's Genealogy of the SubjectAesthetics of Existence: Life as a Work of ArtThe Relational Feminist SubjectConclusion 4. Foucault and the Body: A Feminist Reappraisal Foucault's BodyFeminist Extenders: Disciplinary Practices and the Feminine BodyA Foucauldian Feminist Criticism of Foucault's BodyFeminist Resistance to the Deployment of SexualityConclusion 5. Identity Politics: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality Identity PoliticsFoucault on IdentityPostmodern Criticisms of Identity PoliticsHerculine Barbin and the Sexed BodyBisexuality: Identity and PoliticsConclusion 6. Practices of the Self: From Self-transformation to Social Transformation Foucault's Technologies of the SelfSelf-WritingParrhesia (Truth telling)Consciousness-RaisingConclusion Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

"Feminism, Foucault, and Embodied Subjectivity remains invaluable for its rendering of a thoroughgoing account of feminist theorists' interaction with Foucault through the late 1990s." — Foucault Studies"Engaging, clearly written, and well-argued, this book provides comprehensive and insightful overviews of much of the critical literature on Foucault. The author offers a sympathetic but not dogmatic reading of Foucault, giving careful reconstructions of some of his most important texts/arguments, and extends his ideas in interesting ways." — Amy Allen, author of The Power of Feminist Theory: Domination, Resistance, Solidarity"This is one of the strongest and best-informed defenses of Foucault's continued usefulness to recent feminist debates. McLaren knows the territory well and addresses squarely the difficult issues. An impressive achievement." — Thomas R. Flynn, author of Sartre, Foucault and Historical Reason, vol. 1, Toward an Existentialist Theory of History