Chapter 8: Clearing Ground and Making Connections: Modernism, Postmodernism, Feminism

Carolyn DiPalma & Kathy Ferguson

Clearing ground and making connections: Modernism, postmodernism, feminism This chapter provides a brief introduction to some of the most interesting debates in modernism and postmodernism, describes how those debates find expression in feminist inquiries, and offers a brief vision of feminist pursuits informed by those debates. Key points of contestation are shaped by four overall convictions: (1) the terms modernism and postmodernism are fundamentally relational, and strategically illuminating these shifting relations can be productive; (2) gender is brought to visibility as an analytical category somewhat differently in modern and postmodern thinking; (3) feminist energies produce a particular stance toward method, a set of expectations toward various practices of inquiry; and (4) feminist thinking is best served by productively engaging tensions between modern and postmodern thinking. Numerous debates within feminism move among issues and opinions associated with modernism/modernity and those associated with postmodernism/ postmodernity. However, these terms shift and slide around ...

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