| Course Description : | This course will examine a variety of feminist theories from eighteenth century writers such as Wollenstonecraft and Mill through the radical feminist discourse of Ti-Grace Atkinson and Shulamith Firestone to contemporary writers and activities. The class will focus on central and recurring debates within feminist theory and practice: debates between essentialism and social constructionalism; between liberal reformism and radical transformation; between the politics of sameness, and the politics of difference. The interaction of race/ ethnicity and class with the category of gender will also offer a central analytic strand throughout the course. |