by Tani Barlow series edited by Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan and Robyn Wiegman
Duke University Press, 2004 eISBN: 978-0-8223-8539-4 | Cloth: 978-0-8223-3281-7 | Paper: 978-0-8223-3270-1 Library of Congress Classification HQ1767.B37 2004 Dewey Decimal Classification 305.420951
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism is a history of thinking about the subject of women in twentieth-century China. Tani E. Barlow illustrates the theories and conceptual categories that Enlightenment Chinese intellectuals have developed to describe the collectivity of women. Demonstrating how generations of these theorists have engaged with international debates over eugenics, gender, sexuality, and the psyche, Barlow argues that as an Enlightenment project, feminist debate in China is at once Chinese and international. She reads social theory, psychoanalytic thought, literary criticism, ethics, and revolutionary political ideologies to illustrate the range and scope of Chinese feminist theory’s preoccupation with the problem of gender inequality. She reveals how, throughout the cataclysms of colonial modernity, revolutionary modernization, and market socialism, prominent Chinese feminists have gathered up the remainders of the past and formed them into social and ethical arguments, categories, and political positions, ceaselessly reshaping progressive Enlightenment sexual liberation theory.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Tani E. Barlow is a historian of modern China teaching in the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the editor of many books, including Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia and New Asian Marxisms, both published by Duke University Press. Barlow is the founding senior editor of positions: east asia cultures critique, also published by Duke University Press.
REVIEWS
“Placing feminist thought within a continuum that defines human life in eugenic terms, Tani E. Barlow shows how Chinese feminism is not simply an inheritance of western ideas but is absolutely central to modernity and its emphasis on the sexed human being. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism will spark controversy and will eventually stand as a model of scholarship for all of us to follow.”—Wendy Larson, author of Women and Writing in Modern China
“Tani E. Barlow breaks original ground. Her book has a theoretical reach and sophistication very rare in the China field, drawing its analytical tools from history, literature, feminist studies, psychoanalysis, and film criticism.”—Gail Hershatter, author of Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai
“The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism is an exciting and provocative journey through Chinese feminism and its theoretical permutations throughout the twentieth century.”—Lisa Rofel, author of Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China after Socialism
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 History and Catachresis 15
2 Theorizing “Women” 37
3 Foundations of Progressive Chinese Feminism 64
4 Woman and Colonial Modernity in the Early Thought of Ding Ling 127
5 Women under Maoist Nationalism in the Thought of Ding Ling 190
6 Socialist Modernization and the Market Feminism of Li Xiaojiang 253
7 Dai Jinhua, Globalization, and 1990s Poststructuralist Feminism 302
Conclusion 355
Appendix to Chapter 1: Histtoriography and Catachresis 365
Notes 373
Works Cited 443
Index 471
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
by Tani Barlow series edited by Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan and Robyn Wiegman
Duke University Press, 2004 eISBN: 978-0-8223-8539-4 Cloth: 978-0-8223-3281-7 Paper: 978-0-8223-3270-1
The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism is a history of thinking about the subject of women in twentieth-century China. Tani E. Barlow illustrates the theories and conceptual categories that Enlightenment Chinese intellectuals have developed to describe the collectivity of women. Demonstrating how generations of these theorists have engaged with international debates over eugenics, gender, sexuality, and the psyche, Barlow argues that as an Enlightenment project, feminist debate in China is at once Chinese and international. She reads social theory, psychoanalytic thought, literary criticism, ethics, and revolutionary political ideologies to illustrate the range and scope of Chinese feminist theory’s preoccupation with the problem of gender inequality. She reveals how, throughout the cataclysms of colonial modernity, revolutionary modernization, and market socialism, prominent Chinese feminists have gathered up the remainders of the past and formed them into social and ethical arguments, categories, and political positions, ceaselessly reshaping progressive Enlightenment sexual liberation theory.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Tani E. Barlow is a historian of modern China teaching in the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the editor of many books, including Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia and New Asian Marxisms, both published by Duke University Press. Barlow is the founding senior editor of positions: east asia cultures critique, also published by Duke University Press.
REVIEWS
“Placing feminist thought within a continuum that defines human life in eugenic terms, Tani E. Barlow shows how Chinese feminism is not simply an inheritance of western ideas but is absolutely central to modernity and its emphasis on the sexed human being. The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism will spark controversy and will eventually stand as a model of scholarship for all of us to follow.”—Wendy Larson, author of Women and Writing in Modern China
“Tani E. Barlow breaks original ground. Her book has a theoretical reach and sophistication very rare in the China field, drawing its analytical tools from history, literature, feminist studies, psychoanalysis, and film criticism.”—Gail Hershatter, author of Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai
“The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism is an exciting and provocative journey through Chinese feminism and its theoretical permutations throughout the twentieth century.”—Lisa Rofel, author of Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China after Socialism
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 History and Catachresis 15
2 Theorizing “Women” 37
3 Foundations of Progressive Chinese Feminism 64
4 Woman and Colonial Modernity in the Early Thought of Ding Ling 127
5 Women under Maoist Nationalism in the Thought of Ding Ling 190
6 Socialist Modernization and the Market Feminism of Li Xiaojiang 253
7 Dai Jinhua, Globalization, and 1990s Poststructuralist Feminism 302
Conclusion 355
Appendix to Chapter 1: Histtoriography and Catachresis 365
Notes 373
Works Cited 443
Index 471
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE