Do we need
feminism? This question has been posed in new ways – and by reflecting on new
examples – in Anglophone literature and culture over the course of the past
couple of years. From the election of Donald Trump in the US to the global
#metoo movement to the rise of the international incel (involuntary celibate)
network, public discourse has turned its attention to questions that had seemed
to lay dormant, at least in many places. This question has had a renewal of
interest in recent years in contemporary cultural practice: in short
stories, film, TV series, and documentaries throughout the English-speaking
world and beyond.
With the rise of Gender Studies as a framework for problematizing the natural
division between men and women, the question of whether we need feminism may
indeed seem moot, or – at the very least – under-theorized. Furthermore, many
would assert that women and men have already become equal in social status, and
further feminist discourse is therefore an unfair means for disenfranchising men.
Rather than settling the question from the outset, this course will provide a
platform for exploring it systematically by breaking up the topic into
discrete concepts. These concepts will be used to analyze contemporary cultural
texts that take different perspectives in the debate, from literature to
film to Twitter debates. Course participants are expected to produce posts on a
shared (closed) blog, and students should see themselves as practicing using
academic discourse in order to engage in the contemporary debate.
- Dozent/in: Natalie Roxburgh