Women's Studies.pdf

366

Feminist Theory 5(3)

Robyn Wiegman , ed., Women’s Studies on its Own . Durham, NC: Duke University

Press, 2002. 502 pp. (inc. index). ISBN 0–8223–2986–7, $23.95 (pbk)

Over the past decade there have been increasing concerns about the repute and

future of women’s studies. The ﬁeld is notoriously vulnerable to criticisms

from a plethora of locations, and the turn of the century potentially augurs a

bleak future for it in the wake of escalating barriers and impediments. Wendy

Brown’s provocative conjecture in 1997 concerning the ‘impossibility of

women’s studies’ appeared to pronounce its imminent and necessary demise.

Robyn Wiegman’s edited volume Women’s Studies on its Own emerges out

of the paradox that while women’s studies is mired in seemingly intractable

difﬁculties, many scholars (including Wiegman) ﬁnd women’s studies not

simply necessary but intellectually and politically indispensable (p. 1). Chal-

lenging the apparent contradiction between women’s studies’ inaugurating

principle of subverting the university’s mission versus the contemporary

commodiﬁed production of academic feminists and feminist knowledge,

Wiegman suggests we might think the ﬁeld ‘otherwise’. Rather than submit to

a constant rehearsal of ﬁnding fault with the ﬁeld for its lack of coherence with

the past, or its current intellectual contradictions, Wiegman directed her

contributors to ‘trace the difference that resided in the present and to judge that

difference in relation to the institutional project of academic feminism’ (p. 3).

The resulting volume is one which is skilfully crafted around four main regis-

ters of critical analysis and concern: ‘histories of the present’; ‘institutional

pedagogies’; ‘in the shadow of capital’; and ‘critical classrooms’. Each section

includes between ﬁve and eight chapters, thus I will not focus on any speciﬁc

chapter in this short review; rather I will comment more broadly on each

section and the book as a whole.

The ﬁrst section critically considers some of the tensions and contradictions

inhabiting contemporary women’s studies which all, in some way, invoke

disciplinary practices around: the boundary markers of race; self-disciplining

practices around activism; the institutionalization of identity; and an over-

reliance on temporally constrained narratives of progression. Each discussion

treads a ﬁne line between devastating critique and cautious optimism about the

future of women’s studies, a line which Wiegman, in her introduction, dexter-

ously navigates by couching potentially unfavourable issues for women’s

studies in a comforting wrap. As she says, how else might scholars contem-

plate the idea that women’s studies is ‘perhaps now in the midst of its most

challenging epistemic transformation as it marshals the energy to reconsider

nearly everything it had assumed’ (p. 4).

Section two is a forum in which scholars discuss their own experiences of

teaching women’s studies. Issues covered include: the challenges invoked by

women’s studies’ inter-multi-anti disciplinary character; the burdens on and

expectations of women’s studies’ scholarship to inform and assist political

practice; the increasing impact of consumer individualism and the corpora-

tized university mired in an ethos of ‘accountability’; conﬂicting visions of

social transformation linked to the intricacies of generational struggles around

women’s studies; and the overall levelling and standardizing imperative engen-

dered by the ‘politics of excellence’ to which the contemporary university is

tethered. Although presenting a myriad of seemingly intractable problems

augmenting the discussions in section one, the contributors, nevertheless,

Book reviews

367

exude an aura of determined resistance and tenacious commitment to retain

and work with the ﬁeld of women’s studies, despite the agonies which appear

to currently afﬂict it.

The third section focuses more speciﬁcally on aspects foregrounded by many

of the personalized narratives of the previous section with contemplations on

the wider economic and cultural contexts within which contemporary

women’s studies operates. It is noteworthy that although socialist and Marxist

feminisms are currently out of favour, the title of this section – ‘in the shadow

of capital’ – effectively projects the image of the ‘elephant in the room/globe’

that is capitalism. Discussions in this section move from the ‘local’ to the

‘global’, mulling over the feminized and heterosexualized labour that women’s

studies faculty are still encouraged to engage in; how the idea of a ‘sisterly

community’ can become a normative imposition, as well as our own complic-

ity in the production of and disciplining of economic and political subjects

despite (or because of) often being very successful working with and within

the institution. The last section returns to the classroom – perhaps the only

space left in the commodiﬁed and overly bureaucratized university for radical

practice – if only ﬂeetingly. Pedagogical concerns permeate the reﬂections in

this section. My own preferred ‘solution’ is proffered by Sabina Sawhinney

with her suggestion that we move away from ‘woman as an object of know-

ledge’ (p. 363) and engage in anti-disciplinary practices.

The Afterword by Gloria Bowles seems somewhat out of synch with the rest

of the book in that it appears to locate women’s studies’ current ailments at the

door of ‘European ideas’ – a reference to poststructuralism generally conceived.

Bowles’ desire for ‘a period of correction’ (p. 462) to deal with the ‘excesses of

deconstruction’ (p. 461) feels at odds with Wiegman’s directive to ‘think the

ﬁeld otherwise’. Furthermore, her claim that ‘women’s studies has never taken

hold in Europe the way it has here ’ (p. 461, my emphasis) conﬁrms that this

volume, rather than surveying the ﬁeld of women’s studies, primarily appraises

women’s studies in the United States. Yet despite this, as books on women’s

studies go, this is the best one currently on the market, although I am not sure

I could use it as a main text on either my undergraduate or postgraduate

women’s studies courses. This may say something precisely about the current

problems women’s studies’ scholars face. Women’s studies may still be

‘impossible’, but it also appears to be indispensable with an intriguing,

contested and incoherent future. A copy of Women’s Studies on its Own will

prove to be a necessary book to have on that journey.

Reference

Brown, W. (1997) ‘The Impossibility of Women’s Studies’, differences 9(3):

79–101.

MARYSIA ZALEWSKI

Queen’s University, Belfast

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: