Feminist Theory in the Borderlands
                          Stanford University
                             Winter 1992/93

Instructor: Linda Garber
Email: lglg@leland.stanford.edu

While much of the theory we learn in school arises from traditional
academic disciplines, feminist theory often comes from places
between and outside these boundaries.  Up for grabs in feminist
studies is not only the distinction between disciplines, but also the
definition and goals of theory itself.  If the line between "high" (i.e.,
academic) and "low" (i.e., activist) theory is still drawn, it is also true
that both strains, and much that falls in between, coexist in feminist
research and feminist classrooms.

This course will cover a wide range of feminist thought in order to
introduce students to the contents, uses, and locations of theory as it
applies to scholarship and political praxis.  The work of activist
women of color is central to this seminar:  issues of racism, ethnicity,
class, and sexuality are integral to the study of gender politics as
presented in the reading list.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
*Participation in two weekly class meetings
*Reading Journal:  At each class meeting, students will turn in 1-2
pages (handwritten okay) of informal response to the assigned
reading (for credit, but not for a letter grade).  This assignment is
designed to promote discussion by insuring that students will have
prepared brief commentary on the readings to be discussed.
*Take-home midterm
(consists of three questions requiring students to compare
course readings; specific questions are gleaned from ideas
raised in students' reading journals; 10-12 pp. writing total)
*8-10 page final paper (in-depth version of midterm assignment;
topics provided; students can design their own topics with
consent of instructor)

Week 1: Introductions
1/6 W   Dale Spender, "The Realm of the Intellectual"
        *Page lengths (in parentheses) refer to reader pages, usually
double the # of book pages

Week 2: Feminist Theory on Feminist Theory
1/11 M  Donna Langston, "Feminist Theories and the Politics of
Difference"
        Audre Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the
Master's House"

1/13 W  Elizabeth V. Spelman, Problems of Exclusion in Feminist
Thought (excerpts)
        Barbara Christian, "The Race for Theory"

Week 3: History? Herstory? Whose Story?
1/18 M  NO CLASS - Martin Luther King's Birthday

1/20 W  Carolyn Woodward, "Reclaiming Our Pasts"
        Joan W. Scott, "Women's History"

1/22 F  Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens"
        Chrystos, "I Walk in the History of My People"

Week 4: The Body as Political Battleground
1/25 M  Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

1/27 W  Cynthia Rich, "The Women in the Tower"
        Eva Szekeley, Never Too Thin
Week 5: Economics as Social Commentary
2/1 M   Marilyn Waring, If Women Counted: a New Feminist
Economics  (excerpt)
        Judy Syfers, "I Want a Wife"

2/3 W   Deborah Woo, "The Gap Between Striving and Achieving"
(6 pp.)
        Theresa Funiciello, "The Poverty Industry"
        Barbara Ehrenreich, "Feminism and [Middle] Class
Consolidation"

Week 6: Literature as Political Theory
2/8 M   Kazuko Watanabe, "Writing As Political Strategy: Asian
Women Writing"
        Alice Walker, "How Did I Get Away With Killing One of the
Biggest Lawyers in the
           State? It Was Easy"
        Grace Paley, "Anxiety"
        Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour"

2/10 W  Audre Lorde, "Poetry Is Not a Luxury"
        Audre Lorde, "Power"
        Marge Piercy, "Out of Sight"
        Adrienne Rich, "Transcendental Etude"
        Pat Parker, "Where Will You Be?"
        Take-Home Midterm Handed Out

Week 7: Personal Narrative as Theoretical Text -- Breaking "Genre
Laws"
2/15 M  NO CLASS - Presidents' Day

2/17 W  Michelle Cliff, "If I Could Write This In Fire, I Would
Write This Is Fire"
        Marilyn Zuckerman, "The Melting Pot"

2/19 F  Cherre Moraga, "La Gera"
        Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz, "To Be a Radical Jew in the 20th
Century"
        Midterm Due

Week 8: Identity Politics and Coalition-Building
2/22 M  "Combahee River Collective Statement"
        Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, "The Feminist Movement: Where Are
All the Asian American Women?"
        Biddy Martin and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Feminist Politics:
What's Home Got to Do with It?"

2/24 W  Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Coalition Politics: Turning the
Century"
        Charlotte Bunch, "Making Common Cause: Diversity and
Coalitions"
        Pat Parker, "Have You Ever Tried to Hide?"

Week 9/10: What's Postmodernism Got to Do With It?
3/1 M   Linda J. Nicholson, Introduction to
Feminism/Postmodernism
Nancy Fraser and Linda J. Nicholson, "Social Criticism
without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and
Postmodernism"

3/3 W   Christine Di Stefano, "Dilemmas of Difference"
                bell hooks, "Postmodern Blackness"

3/8 M   Donna Haraway, "A Manifesto for Cyborgs"

3/10 W  Paper Due