The Twin Struggles of Postmodern/Foucaultian Feminism: The Politics of Angela Carter's Wise Children

• Main Authors: Ren, Yi-Jen, 任以真
• Other Authors: Lai, Shou-Cheng
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1996
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10324613293709871388

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語研究所 === 84 === 　　My major concern in this thesis is to explore the possibilities of resolving the tension between a con-structed subject and its capacity to resist. Or in a broader sense, I would like to work out the problem that was hotly debatde among feminists. That is, shall feminist politics abandon the notions of subjectivity as well as identity in order to auoid universalistic philosophy? Or, do feminists have to hang on to unive-rsalistic claims, with all its problems (as some postmodern theorists, such as Michel Foucault implied), in order to support liberal politics? Or, can feminists have their own new version of the philosophy of subjectivity/identity, which is not an either postmodern or feminism, but an alternative one? 　　To answer all these questions, in Chapter Two, Part I, first of all, I examine three different feminist attitudes toward the tension between the postmodern conception of subjectivity/identity and the feministrelated notions of agency. Concerning these three different positions toward the postmodern turn, in part II, my analysis starts from certain notions contained in the writings of Foucault's middle period, most notably (1) the constructive and regulatory practices of subjectivity/identity, and (2)his agonistic model of power . As the conclusion I offer toward the end of part II, I think Foucault's theories on the subject and his notions of resistance both remain to be written as a fullscale study. For all its virtues as well as all its lmitations, therefore, I think to develop a Foucaultianinapired feminism (this stance is in accordance with feminists with an alternative position toward the postmodern turn ) is beneficial and workable for feminism . And I afford this postmodern/Foucaultian feminisma nametoward a politics of twin struggles. As I use Angela Carter' s wise Children and The Sadeian Woman as textual references, the word twin conveys at least three connotations. Besides its literal sense referring to Dora and Nora Chance, the twin sisters in wise Children, the word twin can be explainde as incorporating the promising aspects of postmodern/Foucault's theories with feminism or in a broader sense referring to the mutually corrective potential among feminists themselves. carter's manipulation of the reciprocal intersubjective integration in her work, therefore, confirms my conclusion that she does strategically engage with the theoretical concerns of both postmodern/Foucault and feminism. She not only joins in problematizing any notions of authority but also leaves out a defensible concept of totality. She is thus a quite interesting twin writer.