Feminist Experiences (RLE Feminist Theory) by Susan Bassnett

Author:Susan Bassnett [Bassnett, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138008007
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2014-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

The Sputiamo su Hegel manifesto, although clumsily expressed, can now be seen as very much ahead of its time, for Rivolta Femminile was concerned primarily with a woman's alternative to the male power bases and structures. By describing feminism as ‘the first political moment of historical criticism of the family and of society’, the manifesto is seeking to use the term ‘political’ in a new way. And by rejecting all forms of organization the manifesto dissociates itself from all parties or groups, feminist or not, that utilize what are perceived as inherently oppressive systems.

The anti-organizational premise of Rivolta Femminile and the later Lotta Femminile stands in direct contrast to the vision of the feminists of the traditional and new Left. This has led to a number of clashes over the years, as feminist unity over the major campaigns has begun to show signs of strain. Anti-feminists have pointed to the apparent fragmentation of what seemed in 1974–5 to be a united movement of angry women demanding immediate changes in the social order as evidence of failure, but this is clearly wrong. The gap between the feminist groups of the new Left and the more radical feminist groups in Italy is wide but not unbridgeable, for both sides are in search of a specifically feminist discourse. At the Modena Women's Conference in March 1979 the divisions were very marked, but behind the apparent clash of methods there could be discerned a common desire to explore the issues of women's creativity. At Modena, the anti-organizational feminists attacked the organizers of the conference structure itself, arguing that group discussion leaders, programmes of events and structured debates were inherently oppressive to women. The counter-argument maintained that, without minimal organization, women would sit in silence together for hours and achieve nothing. Silence, it was argued, was traditionally an instrument of oppression that men had imposed on women, and for women to impose it on themselves was worse than useless. The radical feminists held that organizational structures were élitist, the left-wing feminists countered that a lack of organizational structures would result in anarchy and the dissolution of unity. The conference split with bitter exchanges on both sides.

Behind the conflict the same problem can be seen again: how to determine a method and a language in which women can both define themselves and help themselves. And unlike the Anglo-Saxon feminists, who have laid such emphasis on self-definition through awareness of sexuality, or French feminists, who have utilized the instruments of psychoanalysis and theories of the unconscious, Italian feminists, even where seemingly most incompatible, are preoccupied with the same question that once preoccupied Machiavelli: the nature of power.

The writer Gianna Pomata suggests that the women's movement is linked to a series of bourgeois revolts against absolutism, and sets the development of feminism in a historical context, tracing what she calls the ‘progressive’ or ‘evolving’ history of women in Europe from the eighteenth century onwards.10 Her theory of women's history as distinct from any other kind is based on the assumption that the idea of woman is an artificial male construct.

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