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Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, by Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, and Nancy Fraser, with an introduction by Linda Nicholson. New York: Routledge, 1995. 176 pp. $45.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-415-91085-4. $14.95 paper. ISBN: 0-415-91086-2.
This superb book marks a watershed within critical theory in general and feminist theory in particular.
First, it contains brilliant discussions of vital theoretical issues by five preeminent feminist theorists. Second, the issues it discusses are abstruse, yet the writing is uniformly clear and accessible, without sacrificing sophistication or nuance. Third, while the book is ostensibly about the relationship between feminism and postmodernism, it is not-and this is a strength, not a weakness. Some of the authors refuse to use the term postmodernism, others profess ignorance as to its meaning, and those who do invoke it use it disparately and extraneously. This inadvertent commentary on the ambiguity and dubious usefulness of "postmodernism" fairly reflects the current status of the term.
If the book is not about feminism and postmodernism, what is it about? Rather than addressing postmodernism, the authors address the...