A Defense of the French Feminists: Countering Spivak's Arguments in "French Feminism in an International Frame". Issue 2 (15th March 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mansoor, Asma
• Is Part Of: Critique. Volume 60:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 131
• Page End: 142
• Publication Date: 2019-03-15
• Subjects: Ecto-patriarchy -- French and third world feminisms -- Gayatri Spivak -- Arundhati Roy -- symbolic clitoridectomy; Fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Letterkunde; Engels; Electronic journals; 809.304
• DOI: 10.1080/00111619.2018.1526774
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0011-1619

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article challenges Spivak's critique of French feminism by presenting the latter as a tool to theorize the diverse subjectivities of third world women through their operation in an intimate "ecto-patriarchal" space. Using Arundhati Roy's novel The God of Small Things and Ismat Chughtai's Urdu short story "Lihaaf, " I indicate their alignment with French feminism as they depict third world women gaining autonomy over their selves and thereby exceeding ethnocentric boundaries without negating their contextual specifications. I mainly argue that French feminism enables third world women to rethink their subjectivities by exceeding self-replicating patriarchal discourses that have historically silenced them through a symbolic clitoridectomy.