Date: Sat, 30 Mar 1996 15:03:56 +1200
From: gdv-AT-deepsouth.co.nz (danny butt/dessford vogel)
Subject: Re:  contexts for French feminism


>
>MDorencamp-AT-aol.com questioned whether French feminists need to be seen
>only in the light of one context or if they can be usefully put into
>another perspective.  We would like to be able to take them out of both
>contexts of French and feminist. I am looking at them in the light of
>post-colonial studies (Cixous as Algerian, for example).  If a theory is
>only applicable to one area, it's use is questionable.  Any comments?

yes. but perhaps caution is advisable? while post-colonial studies
illustrate how theory travels well outside the spaces alloted for it, there
is also the sense in which a theory arises out of and in response to a
particular context, and carries to some degree weight and signification
>from these contexts. theory will breach its areas anyway (as the work of
various 'French feminists' have), it's how to do it which is the problem.

for me, because i cannot hope to know all the significances certain
theories carry, an investigation of context puts me on guard for
inappropriate or unhelpful signification being smuggled 'in the back door'
as it were. i am also wary of the boundary-collapse which results in 'i can
use anything, context be damned', a kind of coloniality based on reading
rather than writing. well i don't know if that makes sense or not. i don't
want to be policing boundaries or fetishising origins either! thoughts?

anyway

x. danny