Book Description
In The Sounds of Feminist Theory, Ruth Salvaggio follows a distinctive turn toward the oral and evocative qualities of language in feminist theory. Questioning paradigms of female voice and varied feminist claims to language, she suggests that feminist theorists listen to the ways in which words mean more than they ostensibly signify, the ways in which language and epistemology--like sound--are mobile. She calls this theoretical project "Hearing the O," a process of listening for and seizing those wavering qualities of language that invite changes, often remarkable alterations, in how we think. A range of contemporary feminist critical writers are discussed: Gloria Anzaldua, Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Jane Flax, Susan Griffin, Donna Haraway, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Elaine Pagels, Adrienne Rich, Eve Sedgwick, Joan Scott, Jane Tompkins, Trinh Minh-ha, and Patricia Williams. Their investment in the oral modulations of words marks not only a provocative engagement with the incommensurability of contemporary theory, but also a turn to the ambiguous and tangled qualities of language--"poetic literacy"--that generate an evocative epistemology.
About the Author
Ruth Salvaggio is Professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. She is the author of Dryden's Dualities and Enlightened Absence: Neoclassical Configurations of the Feminine; and coeditor, with the Folger Collective on Early Women Critics, of Women Critics, 1660-1820.
The Sounds of Feminist Theory FROM THE PUBLISHER
In The Sounds of Feminist Theory, Ruth Salvaggio follows a distinctive turn toward the oral and evocative qualities of language in feminist theory. Questioning paradigms of female voice and varied feminist claims to language, she suggests that feminist theorists listen to the ways in which words mean more than they ostensibly signify, the ways in which language and epistemology - like sound - are mobile. She calls this theoretical project "Hearing the O," a process of listening for and seizing those wavering qualities of language that invite changes, often remarkable alterations, in how we think. A range of contemporary feminist critical writers are discussed: Gloria Anzaldua, Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Jane Flax, Susan Griffin, Donna Haraway, Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, Elaine Pagels, Adrienne Rich, Eve Sedgwick, Joan Scott, Jane Tompkins, Trinh Minh-ha, and Patricia Williams. Their investment in the oral modulations of words marks not only a provocative engagement with the incommensurability of contemporary theory, but also a turn to the ambiguous and tangled qualities of language - "poetic literacy" - that generate an evocative epistemology.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Author Salvaggio (American Studies, New Mexico U.) examines the oral and evocative qualities of language in feminist theory. Also discussed are various contemporary feminist critical writers, such as Judith Butler, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Eve Sedgwick and Trinh Minh-ha. The book posits that orality is being deliberately used in written language in order to produce certain critical and transformative effects, with the first chapter examining the connections between oral sounds and written words. A discussion of the meaning of infusing poetic expression into prosaic critical thought concludes the work. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.