ENGL 251A Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Vagina Dentata, Natural Philosophy, Apotropaic Magic
Document Summary
Week 5: fe(cid:373)i(cid:374)is(cid:373), queer theory, ha(cid:449)thor(cid:374)e, (cid:862)the birth(cid:373)ark(cid:863) a(cid:374)d. Agenda: feminism (abrams reference: p. 121-127, gender studies-butler, hawthorne, the birthmark . Its concern: to unsettle & challenge gender inequalities, the values and norms of patriarchy: female: a biological matter, feminine: a set of culturally defined characteristics, feminist: a political position. In text, we"re looking for: the representation of women, the misrepresentation of women, power relationships, what kind of voice does the woman have, what gives them this voice, categories of identity, how they are coded in our society. Compulsory heterosexuality: our sense of ourselves is all weighed up against the dominating norm of heterosexuality (heteronormative: norms come from dominant society. Judith butler, gender trouble (1990); bodies that matter (1993: gender is naturalized, fixed, stable, gender is a social construction, gender models demand conformity. Know yourself: ancient dictum, nosce te ipsum (know thy self (self, you ought to be yourself definition, normative, you ought to know yourself, normative.