Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures

Edited by Jeffner Allen

Subjects: Feminist Philosophy, Women's Studies
Series: SUNY series, Feminist Philosophy
Paperback : 9780791403846, 410 pages, July 1990
Hardcover : 9780791403839, 410 pages, July 1990

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Table of contents

INTRODUCTION

LIVING IN THE PLURAL

Joyce Trebilcot
Dyke Methods

Vivienne Louise
The Invisible Woman

LOCATIONS

Kitty Tsui
Breaking Silence, Making Waves and Loving Ourselves: The Politics of Coming Out and Coming Home

Ann Ferguson
Is There a Lesbian Culture?

Julia Penelope
The Lesbian Perspective

Marthe Rosenfeld
Jewish Lesbians in France: The Issue of Multiple Cultures

Claudia Card
Pluralist Lesbian Separatism

Anna Lee
For the Love of Separatism

DIS/CONNECTIONS

Maria Lugones
Playfulness, "World"-Travelling, and Loving Perception

Edwina Franchild
"You do so well.": A Blind Lesbian Responds to Her Sighted Sisters

Caryatis Cardea
Lesbian Revolution and the 50 Minute Hour: A Working-Class Look at Therapy and the Movement

Baba Copper
The View from Over the Hill: Notes on Ageism between Lesbians

Bette S. Tallen
How Inclusive is Feminist Political Theory?: Questions for Lesbians

Michele Causse
The World as Will and Representation
Translated by Eleanor H. Kuykendall

Sarah Lucia Hoagland
Lesbian Ethics and Female Agency

WRITING DESIRE

Nett Hart
Lesbian Desire as Social Action

Marilyn Frye
Lesbian "Sex"

Kim Hall
Learning to Touch Honestly: A White Lesbian's Struggle with Racism

Jacquelyn N. Zita
Lesbian Body Journeys: Desire Making Difference

Monique Wittig
The Trojan Horse

Nicole Brossard
Coincidence
Certain Words
Translated by Marlene Wildeman

Gloria E. Anzaldua
She Ate Horses

Jeffner Allen
On the Seashore, A Writing of Abundance

CONTRIBUTORS

Description

The lesbians who have contributed to this book are theorists and activists who write as members of diverse lesbian cultures. Each lesbian has her ways of knowing, her voices, approaches, methodologies, languages. Each lesbian reflects, directly and indirectly, her relations to her own and to other ethnicities, races, social classes, physical abilities, ages, and nationalities. Each lesbian has distinctive perspectives on lesbian existence, friendships and sexualities, separatism and coalition building, theories of knowledge and ethics, language and writing. Lesbian Philosophies and Cultures is a hybrid site for discussion of, work on, and delight in this sometimes uneasy, sometimes painful, sometimes surprising and wonderful, lesbian pluralism.

For this collection, some of the contributors have chosen to write in essay style, and some have chosen to write in fiction, autobiography, poetic prose and experimental forms. The contributors, all of whom live currently in the u.s.a. or quebec, are: Joyce Trebilcot, Vivienne Louise, Kitty Tsui, Ann Ferguson, Julia Penelope, Marthe Rosenfeld, Claudia Card, Anna Lee, María Lugones, Edwina Franchild, Caryatis Cardea, Baba Copper, Bette S. Tallen, Michèle Causse, Sarah Lucia Hoagland, Nett Hart, Marilyn Frye, Kim Hall, Jacquelyn N. Zita, Monique Wittig, Nicole Brossard, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Jeffner Allen.

Jeffner Allen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at State University of New York, Binghamton. She is the author of Lesbian Philosophy: Explorations, and co-editor of The Thinking Muse: Feminism and Modern French Philosophy. She is active in the Society for Women in Philosophy and the National Women's Studies Association, and is on the Editorial Board of Hypatia: Journal of Feminist Philosophy.