The difference debate : the politics of feminist literary criticism in South Africa.
Loading...
Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This dissertation traces the development of the ‘difference debate’ during the 1990s. Using the
ground-breaking Natal conference on ‘Women and Gender in Southern Africa’ as the central
point of reference, the study aims to investigate the impact and legacy of the ‘difference debate’
in feminist criticism in the 1990s, and ultimately, the ways in which feminist scholars responded
to the challenges posed by the ‘problem of difference’. The dissertation outlines the heated
debates and intense disagreements that occurred during the decade that exposed previously
nascent fissures in a purportedly unified feminist ‘sisterhood’. In this way, this brief intellectual
history traces the trajectory of feminist debates over difference, race and gender, and the politics
of representation, as articulated at the Natal conference on Women and Gender and in
subsequent feminist scholarship. What emerges from these discussions are new strategies in
which feminists embrace coalition politics as a way to move beyond the divisions that the
concept of difference exposed. These feminist formations are orientated towards recognising and
dealing with the differences between and among women, in order to account for gender as a
fragmented and unstable concept. This dissertation therefore illuminates the ways in which the
difference debate has had an indelible impact on contemporary feminist thought and in turn, has
influenced the principles and methodologies of feminist literary criticism.
Description
M. A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.
Keywords
Feminist literary criticism--South Africa., Feminism and literature--South Africa., Theses--English.