Power and Feminist Agency in Capitalism: Toward a New Theory of the Political Subject
Description: This book provides answers for the questions of the when, who, how and what of socio-political change and finds solutions to the dilemmas inherent in the idea of the political subject. It introduces the idea of the moment of the limit to theorize the moment when feminist agency is possible in late capitalist societies despite the ways in which power subordinates us. It introduces the idea of the political subject-in-outline to theorize the who of socio-political change, which challenges political and feminist thought that aims at giving up on the subject or theorizing it as a “constantly shifting” identity. Such a political subject moves within the tension of a certain coherence (the subject) necessary to effect change, and permanent openness (the outline) necessary to counter its exclusionary character. It shows that theory and practice are equally important tools of how we can change the world, and that we must conceptualize theory and practice as never finished, but rather as ongoing projects, to become transformative. It conceptualizes a new concept of suffering that envisions what spurs on social change in the bodily moment of suffering that tells us that things should be different. It also explains the ways in which the idea of the political subject-in-outline embraces the concept of the unconscious, and rejects the language of recognition. Finally, it shows that for theorizing a mediated relationship between oppositions, we must make the unconscious link of the working classes, women, racial and sexual minorities to the negative pole conscious.