Obioma Nnaemeka

Female Circumcision and the Politics of Knowledge (eBook, PDF)

African Women in Imperialist Discourses

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Heated debates about and insurgencies against female circumcision are symptoms of a disease emanating from a mindset that produced hierarchies of humans, conquered colonies, and built empires. The loss of colonies and empires does not in any way mitigate the ideological underpinnings of empire-building and the knowledge construction that subtends it. The mindset finds its articulation at points of coalescence. Female circumcision provided a point of coalescence and impetus for this articulation. Insisting that the hierarchy on which the imperialist project rests is not bipolar but multi-layered and more complex, the contributions in this volume demonstrate how imperialist discourses complicate issues of gender, race, and history. Nnaemeka gives voice to the silenced and marginalized, and creates space for them to participate in knowledge construction and theory making.

The authors in this volume trace the travels of imperial and colonial discourses from antecedents in anthropology, travel writings, and missionary discourse, to modern configurations in films, literature, and popular culture. The contributors interrogate foreign, or Western, modus operandi and interventions in the so-called Third World and show how the resistance they generate can impede development work and undermine the true collaboration and partnership necessary to promote a transnational feminist agenda. With great clarity and in simple, accessible language, the contributors present complex ideas and arguments which hold significant implications for transnational feminism and development.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Juli 2005
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313068744
• Artikelnr.: 37820098

Autorenporträt

Obioma Nnaemeka is Professor of French, Women's Studies, and African/African Diaspora Studies and Director of the Women's Studies Program at Indiana University, Indianapolis. She is also the President of the Association of African Women Scholars. Professor Nnaemeka has published extensively on literature, women's/gender studies, development, and African/African Diaspora studies.

Inhaltsangabe

INTRODUCTION The Challenges of Border-Crossing: African Women and
Transnational Feminisms by Obioma Nnaemeka CULTURES, SEXUALITIES, AND
KNOWLEDGE Sex and Imperialism in Africa by Nawal El Saadawi African Women,
Colonial Discourses, and Imperialist Interventions: Female Circumcision as
Impetus by Obioma Nnaemeka Transcending the Boundaries of Power and
Imperialism: Writing Gender, Constructing Knowledge by Omofolabo
Ajayi-Soyinka BODIES THAT DON'T MATTER Out of Africa: "Our Bodies
Ourselves?" by Vicki Kirby Women's Rights, Bodies, and Identities: The
Limits of Universalism and the Legal Debate around Excision in France by
Francoise Lionnet "Other" Bodies: Western Feminism, Race, and
Representation in Female Circumcision Discourse by Chima Korieh IMPERIAL
GAZE AND FICTIONS Libidinal Quicksand: Imperial Fictions and African
Femininity by Jude Akudinobi Confronting the Western Gaze by Eloise Brière
TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST CONTENTIONS: SISTERHOOD AND COALITION POLITICS
REVISITED The Anti Female Circumcision Campaign Deficit by L. Amede Obiora
Colonial Discourse and Ethnographic Residuals: The "Female Circumcision"
Debate and the Politics of Knowledge by Sondra Hale Parallax Sightlines:
Alice Walker's Sisterhood and the Key to Dreams by Chimalum Nwankwo
Overcoming Willful Blindness: Building Egalitarian Multicultural Women's
Coalitions by Ange-Marie Hancock Notes on Contributors Index