Maternal Ethics and Other Slave Moralities

ISBN-13: 9780415912105 / Angielski / Miękka / 1995 / 228 str.

Cynthia Willett; C. Willett;Willett Cynthia

Opis

In this work, Cynthia Willett puts forward a novel theory of ethical subjectivity that counters the pathology of sexist, racist, Eurocentric culture. Weaving together accounts of the self drawn from African-American and European philosophies, psychoanalysis, slave narratives and sociology, Willett interrogates what Hegel locates as the core of the self: the desire for recognition. What a subject experiences as social death, cultural alienation or spirit murder according to Willett are problems in the social and psychological dynamics of recognition. A colonized subject suffers from sources of oppression that cannot be fully understood through traditional liberal or Marxist analyses. Developing her theory of ethical subjectivity, Willett questions the misogynist fantasies projected onto the mother-child relationship, finding instead a sensuality that is repressed in Western culture. She also examines rites of passage into manhood in the work of Frederick Douglass and their relation to the master/slave' dialectic.

Recenzje

"Cynthia Willett has written an original rethinking of Hegel and the Hegelian concept of recognition that will make an important and original intervention into feminist social theory and political philosophy in general. Her book brilliantly moves from Hegelian analysis of maternal ethics to a powerful redefinition of the political struggle against racism." -- Drucilla Cornell
"Maternal Ethics and Other Slave Moralities is a rare and refreshing philosophical text...a must read for all those that view the philosophical enterprise as more than merely interpreting of the world." -- Auslegung
"... very interesting." -- Ethics
"... significant ... Willet's inquiry leaves one feeling much more optimistic about the potential for liberatory ethics and practices." -- Social Theory and Practice
"Cynthia Willett has written an original rethinking of Hegel and the Hegelian concept of recognition that will make an important and original intervention into feminist social theory and political philosophy in general. Her book brilliantly moves from Hegelian analysis of maternal ethics to a powerful redefinition of the political struggle against racism
." -- Drucilla Cornell
"Maternal Ethics and Other Slave Moralities is a rare and refreshing philosophical text . . . a must read for all those that view the philosophical enterprise as more than merely interpreting of the world
." -- Auslegung

Spis treści

Introduction; Part One The Sensuality of the Good; Chapter 1 The Origin of Ethics in Music and Dance; Chapter 2 Tactile Sociality; Part Two Correspondences: The Attunement of Self and Other; Chapter 3 The Greeting; Chapter 4 The Figure of the Face; Part Three Dissonance and Social Struggle; Chapter 5 Hegel's Master Narrative of Freedom and the African American Experience; Chapter 6 A Slave Narrative of Freedom; Chapter 7 Spirit;

O autorze

Cynthia Willett