Grappling with Gender: Critical Views and Current Debates in Feminist Historiography
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Published
10-02-2020
Inmaculada Blasco Herranz
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to invite reflection and inspire discussion on the use of gender in historical analysis. To this aim, the paper looks at three lines of criticism to gender and its use: from the insatisfaction of Joan W. Scott, a leading advocate on gender as a category of historical analysis; through the sometimes more radical proposal by postcolonial historians; to the recent questioning of the oppositional binary implicit in the concept as well as the reifying effect of its use. Through the discussion of these criticisms, I suggest the benefits of re-opening epistemological and theoretical debates, on the one hand, of the nature and operation of analytical categories in history and, on the other hand, on historical articulation of difference and power relations, together with their part in the construction of historical subjects.
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Keywords
gender, Joan W. Scott, postcolonial history, oppositional binary, power relations, difference
References
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ARESTI, Nerea y LLONA, Miren, "Mary Nash, tras las huellas del feminismo histórico", Teresa Ortega, Ana Aguado y Elena Hernández Sancoica (eds.), Mujeres, dones, Mulleres, Emakumeak. Estudios sobre la historia de las mujeres del género, Cátedra, 2019, pp. 359-378.
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BOYDSTON, Jeanne, "Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis", Gender & History, 20-3, 2008, pp. 558–583.
BROWN, Wendy, E D G E W O R K. Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics, Princeton University Press, Durham y Londres, 2005.
BUTLER, Judith, Cuerpos que importan. Sobre los límites discursivos del "sexo", Paidós, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, México, 2002. [Bodies that That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex", Routledge, Nueva York, 1993].
CABRERA, Miguel Ángel, "Lenguaje, experiencia e identidad. La contribución de Joan Scott a la renovación teórica de los estudios históricos", en Cristina Borderías (ed.), Joan Scott y las políticas de la historia, Icaria, Barcelona, 2006, pp. 233-257.
CHAKRABARTY, Dipesh, Al margen de Europa: pensamiento poscolonial y diferencia histórica, Tusquets, Barcelona, 2008. [Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial Thought and historical difference, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000].
DIVASSÓN, Blanca, Mujer, género y trabajo en Canarias en época contemporánea, 1868-1914 [tesis doctoral inédita]. Universidad de La Laguna, 2015.
ESPINOSA, Yuderkis, "Presentación. La importancia de leer a Oyěwùmí en América Latina", en LA INVENCIÓN DE LAS MUJERES. Una perspectiva africana sobre los discursos occidentales del género, Editorial en la frontera, Bogotá, 2017, pp. 7-26.
FARGE, Arlette, "La historia de las mujeres: Cultura y poder de las mujeres: ensayo de historiografía", Historia Social, 9, 1991, pp. 79-102.
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HARAWAY, Dona. J., Ciencia, cyborgs y mujeres: la reivención de la naturaleza, Cátedra, Madrid, 1995. [Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, Nueva York, 1991].
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KRYLOVA, Anna, Soviet Women in Combat. A History of Violence on the Eastern Front, Cambridge University Press, Nueva York, 2010.
LAQUEUR, Thomas, La construcción del sexo. Cuerpo y género desde los griegos hasta Freud, Cátedra, Madrid, 1994. [Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, Harvard University Press, Cambridge/London, 1990].
MAHMOOD, Saba, The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton University Press, Prince¬ton, 2004.
NAJMABADI, Afsaneh, "Beyond the Americas: Are Gender and Sexuality Useful Categories of Historical Analysis?", Journal of Women´s History, 18-1, 2006, pp. 11-21.
NAJMABADI, Afsaneh, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards. Gender and Sexual Axieties of Iranian Modernity, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles y Londres, 2005.
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OYÈWÚMÍ, Ôyèronké, What Gender Is Motherhood? Changing Yorùbá Ideals of Power, Procreation, and Identity in the Age of Modernity, Palgrave McMillan, Basingstoke, 2016.
RILEY, Denise, Am I that Name? Feminism and the Category of Women in History, MacMillan, Houndmills, 1988.
ROBERTS, Mary Louise, "Beyond 'Crisis' in Understanding Gender Transformation", Gender & History, 28-2, 2016, pp. 358–366.
SABSAY, Leticia, "Dilemas queer contemporáneos: ciudadanías sexuales, orientalismo y subjetividades liberales. Un diálogo con Leticia Sabsay", Íconos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 47, 2013, pp. 103-118.
SAEIDI, Shirin, "Reconsidering Categories of Analysis: Possibilities for Feminist Studies of Conflict", Gender & History, 24-3, 2012, pp. 799–824.
SCOTT, Joan W., "Igualdad versus diferencia: los usos de la teoría posestructuralista", Debate feminista, 3-5, 1992, pp. 85-104. ["Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism", Feminist Studies, 14-1, 1988, pp. 33-50].
SCOTT, Joan W., Las mujeres y los derechos del hombre. Feminismo y sufragio en Francia, 1789-1944, Siglo Veintiuno, Buenos Aires, 2012. [Only Paradoxes to Offer. French Feminists and the Rights of Man, Cambridge y Londres, Harvard University Press, 1996].
SCOTT, Joan W., Género e historia. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2008a. [Gender and the Politics of History. Revised edition, Columbia University Press, Nueva York, 1999].
SCOTT, Joan W., "Unanswered Questions", The American Historical Review, 113-5, 2008b, pp. 1422-1429.
SCOTT, Joan W., "Género: ¿Todavía una categoría útil para el análisis?", La manzana de la Discordia, 6-1, 2011a, pp. 95-101. ["Gender: Still a Useful Category of Analysis?", Diogenes, 57-1, 2010, pp. 7-14].
SCOTT, Joan W., The Fantasy of Feminist History, Duke University Press, Durham y Londres, 2011b.
SCOTT, Joan W., Sex and Secularism, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2018.
SEGATO, Rita, "Género, política e hibridismo en la transnacionalización de la cultura Yoruba", Estudos Afro-Asiáticos, 25-2, 2003, pp. 333-363.
VVAA., "Debate Historia de las mujeres y de género: pasado y futuro", Ayer, 104, 2016, pp. 249-276.
WIESNER-HANKS, Merry, "Forum Introduction: Reconsidering Patriarchy in Early Modern Europe and the Middle East", Gender & History, 30-2, 2018, pp. 320–330.
ARESTI, Nerea, "La categoría de género en la obra de Joan Scott", en Cristina Borderías (ed.), Joan Scott y las políticas de la historia, Icaria, Barcelona, 2006, pp. 223-232.
ARESTI, Nerea y LLONA, Miren, "Mary Nash, tras las huellas del feminismo histórico", Teresa Ortega, Ana Aguado y Elena Hernández Sancoica (eds.), Mujeres, dones, Mulleres, Emakumeak. Estudios sobre la historia de las mujeres del género, Cátedra, 2019, pp. 359-378.
BAKARE-YUSUF, Bibi, "Los Yoruba no hacen género": Una revisión crítica de 'La invención de la Mujer: Haciendo un SentidoAfricano de los Discursos Occidentales de Género' de Ôyèronké Oyèwúmí", africaneando. Revista de actualidad y experiencias, 5-1, 2011, pp. 25-54 (http://www.oozebap.org/africaneando/africaneando-05.pdf. Consultado el 7 de abril de 2018)
BARLOW, Tani E., The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism, Duke University Press, Durhan y Londres, 2004.
BOYDSTON, Jeanne, "Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis", Gender & History, 20-3, 2008, pp. 558–583.
BROWN, Wendy, E D G E W O R K. Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics, Princeton University Press, Durham y Londres, 2005.
BUTLER, Judith, Cuerpos que importan. Sobre los límites discursivos del "sexo", Paidós, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, México, 2002. [Bodies that That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex", Routledge, Nueva York, 1993].
CABRERA, Miguel Ángel, "Lenguaje, experiencia e identidad. La contribución de Joan Scott a la renovación teórica de los estudios históricos", en Cristina Borderías (ed.), Joan Scott y las políticas de la historia, Icaria, Barcelona, 2006, pp. 233-257.
CHAKRABARTY, Dipesh, Al margen de Europa: pensamiento poscolonial y diferencia histórica, Tusquets, Barcelona, 2008. [Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial Thought and historical difference, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000].
DIVASSÓN, Blanca, Mujer, género y trabajo en Canarias en época contemporánea, 1868-1914 [tesis doctoral inédita]. Universidad de La Laguna, 2015.
ESPINOSA, Yuderkis, "Presentación. La importancia de leer a Oyěwùmí en América Latina", en LA INVENCIÓN DE LAS MUJERES. Una perspectiva africana sobre los discursos occidentales del género, Editorial en la frontera, Bogotá, 2017, pp. 7-26.
FARGE, Arlette, "La historia de las mujeres: Cultura y poder de las mujeres: ensayo de historiografía", Historia Social, 9, 1991, pp. 79-102.
FRAISSE, Geneviève, Los excesos del género. Concepto, imagen, desnudez, Cátedra/PUV, Madrid, 2016. [Les excès du genre. Concept, image, nudité, Editions Lignes, París, 2014].
HARAWAY, Dona. J., Ciencia, cyborgs y mujeres: la reivención de la naturaleza, Cátedra, Madrid, 1995. [Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, Nueva York, 1991].
KRYLOVA, Anna, "Gender Binary and the Limits of Poststructuralist Method", Gender & History, 28-2, 2016, pp. 307–323.
KRYLOVA, Anna, Soviet Women in Combat. A History of Violence on the Eastern Front, Cambridge University Press, Nueva York, 2010.
LAQUEUR, Thomas, La construcción del sexo. Cuerpo y género desde los griegos hasta Freud, Cátedra, Madrid, 1994. [Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, Harvard University Press, Cambridge/London, 1990].
MAHMOOD, Saba, The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton University Press, Prince¬ton, 2004.
NAJMABADI, Afsaneh, "Beyond the Americas: Are Gender and Sexuality Useful Categories of Historical Analysis?", Journal of Women´s History, 18-1, 2006, pp. 11-21.
NAJMABADI, Afsaneh, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards. Gender and Sexual Axieties of Iranian Modernity, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles y Londres, 2005.
OYÈWÚMÍ, Ôyèronké, "Conceptualising gender: The Eurocentric foundation of feminist concepts and the challenge of African epistemologies", JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, 2-1, 2002, pp. 1-6.
OYÈWÚMÍ, Ôyèronké, The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis y Londres, 1997 (traducción al castellano: LA INVENCIÓN DE LAS MUJERES. Una perspectiva africana sobre los discursos occidentales del género, Editorial en la frontera, Bogotá, 2017. (Descargado el 8 de mayo de 2017 en http://glefas.org/la-invencion-de-las-mujeres-oyeronke-oyewumi/).
OYÈWÚMÍ, Ôyèronké, What Gender Is Motherhood? Changing Yorùbá Ideals of Power, Procreation, and Identity in the Age of Modernity, Palgrave McMillan, Basingstoke, 2016.
RILEY, Denise, Am I that Name? Feminism and the Category of Women in History, MacMillan, Houndmills, 1988.
ROBERTS, Mary Louise, "Beyond 'Crisis' in Understanding Gender Transformation", Gender & History, 28-2, 2016, pp. 358–366.
SABSAY, Leticia, "Dilemas queer contemporáneos: ciudadanías sexuales, orientalismo y subjetividades liberales. Un diálogo con Leticia Sabsay", Íconos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 47, 2013, pp. 103-118.
SAEIDI, Shirin, "Reconsidering Categories of Analysis: Possibilities for Feminist Studies of Conflict", Gender & History, 24-3, 2012, pp. 799–824.
SCOTT, Joan W., "Igualdad versus diferencia: los usos de la teoría posestructuralista", Debate feminista, 3-5, 1992, pp. 85-104. ["Deconstructing equality-versus-difference: Or the uses of poststructuralist theory for feminism", Feminist Studies, 14-1, 1988, pp. 33-50].
SCOTT, Joan W., Las mujeres y los derechos del hombre. Feminismo y sufragio en Francia, 1789-1944, Siglo Veintiuno, Buenos Aires, 2012. [Only Paradoxes to Offer. French Feminists and the Rights of Man, Cambridge y Londres, Harvard University Press, 1996].
SCOTT, Joan W., Género e historia. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2008a. [Gender and the Politics of History. Revised edition, Columbia University Press, Nueva York, 1999].
SCOTT, Joan W., "Unanswered Questions", The American Historical Review, 113-5, 2008b, pp. 1422-1429.
SCOTT, Joan W., "Género: ¿Todavía una categoría útil para el análisis?", La manzana de la Discordia, 6-1, 2011a, pp. 95-101. ["Gender: Still a Useful Category of Analysis?", Diogenes, 57-1, 2010, pp. 7-14].
SCOTT, Joan W., The Fantasy of Feminist History, Duke University Press, Durham y Londres, 2011b.
SCOTT, Joan W., Sex and Secularism, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2018.
SEGATO, Rita, "Género, política e hibridismo en la transnacionalización de la cultura Yoruba", Estudos Afro-Asiáticos, 25-2, 2003, pp. 333-363.
VVAA., "Debate Historia de las mujeres y de género: pasado y futuro", Ayer, 104, 2016, pp. 249-276.
WIESNER-HANKS, Merry, "Forum Introduction: Reconsidering Patriarchy in Early Modern Europe and the Middle East", Gender & History, 30-2, 2018, pp. 320–330.
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