Cultural CritiquePapers

This paper explores the multifaceted responses from the Chinese art world to Linda Nochlin's famous 1971 question 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?' The author analyzes how feminist art criticism has been translated and practiced in China, and drawing on the theory of 'feminism with Chinese characteristics' proposed by Zhu and Xiao, emphasizes the non-binary nature of gender politics within specific historical contexts.

Obioma Nnaemeka theorizes African feminist agency through negotiation, give-and-take, and the strategic navigation of institutions rather than a universal script of confrontation.

This provocative 2000 article challenges the state of contemporary feminist theory, arguing that while feminist epistemology, methodology and ethics have undergone revolutionary transformation, feminist theory remains trapped within parallel structures to mainstream/malestream social theory. Stanley and Wise call for a fundamental feminist autocritique and the development of feminist metatheory.

This groundbreaking 1990 essay provides a feminist critique of Habermas's theory of the public sphere. Fraser introduces the concept of 'subaltern counterpublics' to reveal the exclusionary nature of the bourgeois public sphere, arguing for the necessity of multiple publics and offering a new theoretical framework for understanding democratic participation and social justice.

This foundational text of postcolonial feminist theory questions the possibility of Western intellectuals representing the oppressed. Through analyzing colonial discourse on Indian widow immolation (sati), Spivak reveals the imperialist logic of 'white men saving brown women from brown men,' arguing that subaltern women are structurally silenced under the dual oppression of colonialism and patriarchy.

Hélène Cixous's 1975 classic feminist essay introduces the important concept of 'écriture féminine' (feminine writing), calling on women to reclaim their bodies and voices through writing, and remains one of the most influential texts of French feminist theory.

This groundbreaking 1975 essay introduces the concept of 'écriture féminine' (feminine writing), calling for women to reclaim their bodies and desires through writing. Cixous reinterprets the myth of Medusa, transforming her from a monstrous figure into a symbol of feminine power and creativity, challenging patriarchal language systems and advocating for the revolutionary potential of women's writing.