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Important Dates:

17 September, 2017: Tentative date of Submission of the First (Mid-term) Internal Assignment
19 November 2017: Tentative date of Submission of the Second (End-term) Internal Assignment
Mid-December: End-Semester I Examination

Feminism and the Social Sciences

Course II Optional
Course-Coordinator: Trina Nileena Banerjee
Course Instructors: Anirban Das, Asha Singh, Debdatta Chowdhury, Trina Nileena Banerjee.

PROVISIONAL OUTLINE OF LECTURES AND READINGS

This course will explore the success with which feminist theory has recast or challenged the social sciences. In
particular, reference will be made to developments – conceptual, methodological, and empirical – within the
realms of history, political science, sociology and sexuality studies. One set of questions within this course will
examine how feminist scholarship has changed the dominant models of research on politics by forging new
theoretical and conceptual apparatuses as well as new methods of enquiry. It will discuss the question of
feminism’s challenges to theorizing on knowledge and experience, as well as look at its encounters with questions
of nation, state, citizenship and law. It will look also at questions of gender and genre, as well as briefly explore
the influence of feminist criticism on the fields of literature, film studies, visual art and performance studies.

(Anirban Das: Lectures 1-6)

18th July
Lecture 1: Feminisms and Sexual Difference

 Grosz, Elizabeth. “Sexual Difference and the Problem of Essentialism”, From the Margins, Volume 2
Number 1, February 2002, pp. 86-97.
 Butler, Judith. “Contingent Foundations”, Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, eds.,
Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell & Nancy Fraser. New York and London: Routledge, 1995, pp.
35-57.
 Tharu, Susie and K. Lalita. “Introduction”, Women Writing in India Volume 1, eds., Susie Tharu and
K. Lalita. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993, pp.1-37.
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 Sen, Amartya. “Gender Inequality and Theories of Justice”, Women, Culture and Development, eds.,
Martha Nussbaum and J. Glover. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

21st July
Lecture 2: Standpoint Theories

 Harding, Sandra. “Introduction: Standpoint Theory as a Site of Political Philosophical and Scientific
Debate”, The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, ed., Sandra Harding. New York and London: Routledge, 2004.
 Hekman, Susan. “Truth and Method: Feminist Standpoint Theory Revisited”, The Feminist
Standpoint Theory Reader, ed., Sandra Harding. New York and London: Routledge, 2004.
 The Debate around Hekman’s Article

25th July
Lecture 3: Identities and the Sex-Gender System

 Rubin, Gayle. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex”, Toward an
Anthropology of Women, ed., Rayna Reiter. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975.
 Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late
Twentieth Century”, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991.

28th July

Lecture 4: The Body and Sexual Difference

 Heinamaa Sara. 2004. “The Soul-Body Union and Sexual Difference: From Descartes to Merleau-Ponty and
Beauvoir” in Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy, ed., L. Alanen and C. Witt, 137-151. Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
 Heinamaa Sara. 1997. “Woman – nature, product, style? Rethinking the foundations of feminist philosophy of
science” in Feminism, science, and the philosophy of science ed. L. H. Nelson and J. Nelson.
Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
 Butler, Judith. 1989. “Foucault and the Paradox of Bodily Inscriptions” in The Journal of Philosophy LXXXVI
(11).

1st August

Lecture 5: The Cartesian Split?

 Descartes, Rene. 1968. “The First Meditation” and the “Second Meditation” in Discourse on Method and The
Meditations tr., F.E. Sutcliffe, 95-112. Penguin Books.
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 Bynum, Caroline. 1999. “Why All the Fuss About the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective” in Critical Inquiry
22 (1), 1-33.

Suggested Readings –

Brodsky Lacour, Claudia. 1996. “The Cogito and Architectural Form” in Lines of Thought: Discourse,
Architectonics, and the Origin of Modern Philosophy, 87-110. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

4th August

Lecture 6: Lacan and the Body-Image

 Lacan, Jacques. 2006. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic
Experience” in Ecrits, tr., Bruce Fink, 75-81. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company.
 Butler, Judith. 1993. “The Lesbian Phallus and the Morphological Imaginary” in Bodies that Matter: On the
Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York & London: Routledge.

Suggested Readings –

Lacan, Jacques. 2006. “The Signification of the Phallus” in Ecrits, tr., Bruce Fink, 575-584. New York and
London: W. W. Norton & Company.

Juliet Mitchell and Jacqueline Rose (ed). 1982. “Introduction I” and “Introduction II” in Feminine Sexuality,
1-57. New York & London: W. W. Norton and Pantheon Books.

(Lectures 7-12: Asha Singh)

8th August

Lecture 7: Women’s Movement/s (I): Historicizing Women’s Movements

 Murdolo, Adele. “Warmth and Unity with All Women? Historicizing Racism in the Australian Women's
Movement.” Feminist Review, no. 52, 1996, pp. 69–86. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1395774.
 Ray, Raka. Fields of protest: Women's movements in India. Vol. 8. U of Minnesota Press, 1999. p.45-101

11th August

Lecture 8: Women’s Movement/s (II): Building Women’s Movements

 Paik, Shailaja. “Building Bridges: Articulating Dalit and African American Women's Solidarity.”
Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3/4, 2014, pp. 74–96. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24364991.
 Mama, Amina, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Militarism, Conflict and Women's Activism in the Global Era:
Challenges and Prospects for Women in Three West African Contexts.” Feminist Review, no. 101, 2012,
pp. 97–123. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41495235.
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16th August

Lecture 9: Women and Labour (I): Origins and Practices of Division of Labour

 Mies, Maria. Patriarchy and accumulation on a world scale: Women in the international division of
labour. Palgrave Macmillan, 1998. (p.44- 73)

 De Neve, Geert. "‘We are all sondukarar (relatives)!’ kinship and its morality in an urban industry of
Tamil Nadu, South India." Modern Asian Studies 42.1 (2008): 211-246.

18th August

Lecture 10: Women and Labour (II): Colonization, Women and Labour

 Mies, Maria. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of
Labour. Palgrave Macmillan, 1998 (p.74-111).

 Sen, Samita. Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry. Vol. 3. Cambridge
University Press, 1999 (p.54-88).

22nd August

Lecture 11: Women and Development (I)

 Agarwal, Bina. “Widows versus Daughters or Widows as Daughters? Property, Land, and Economic
Security in Rural India.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 1, 1998, pp. 1–48. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/312968.

 Devika, J. “Rockets with Fire in Their Tails? Women Leaders in Kerala's Panchayats.” India
International Centre Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3/4, 2012, pp. 42–53. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/24394274.\

25th August

Lecture 12: Women and Development (II)

 Paik, Shailaja. “Dalit women in Employment” in Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double
Discrimination.2016, Routledge.
 John, Mary E. "Census 2011: Governing populations and the girl child." Economic and Political Weekly
(2011): 10-12.
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(Trina Nileena Banerjee: Lectures 13-18)

29th August

Lecture 13: Feminist Historiography and Ethnography (I)

 Smith, Bonnie G. “Introduction” and “The Narcotic Road to the Past”, The Gender of History: Men,
Women, and Historical Practice. Cambridge, Mass. & London, U.K.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

 Chakravarti, Uma. “Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi: Orientalism, Nationalism, and a Script for
the Past,” Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History, eds., Kumkum Sangari & Sudesh Vaid. New Delhi, Kali
for Women, 1989.

1st September

Lecture 14: Feminist Historiography and Ethnography (II)

 Viseswaran, Kamala. “Refusing the Subject”, Fictions of Feminist Ethnography. Minneapolis: Univ.
of Minnesota Press, 1994.

 Jardine, Lisa. “Unpicking a Tapestry: The Scholar of Women’s History as Penelope among Her
Suitors”, The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, eds., Lizbeth Goodman & Jane De Gay. London:
Routledge, 1998.

5th September

Lecture 15: Gender and Representation (I)

 Chow, Rey. “Gender and Representation”, Feminist Consequences: Theory for the New Century, eds.,
Elizabeth Bronfen & Misha Kavka. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

 De Lauretis, Teresa. “Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation”, The Routledge Reader in Gender
and Performance, eds., Lizbeth Goodman & Jane De Gay. London: Routledge, 1998.
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8th September

Lecture 16: Gender and Representation (II): Visual Art and Film:

 Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory
Readings, eds., Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

 Kapur, Geeta. “Body as Gesture: Women Artists at Work”, When Was Modernism: Essays on
Contemporary Cultural Practice in India. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1997.

12th September

Lecture 17: Gender and Representation (III): Performance and Performativity

 Butler, Judith. Excerpt from Bodies That Matter, The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance,
eds., Lizbeth Goodman & Jane De Gay. London: Routledge, 1998.

 Phelan, Peggy. “The Ontology of Performance: Representation without Reproduction”, Unmarked: The
Politics of Performance. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

15th September

Lecture 18: Gender and Representation (IV): Performance and Performativity

 Case, Sue Ellen. “Towards a New Poetics”, The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance, eds.,
Lizbeth Goodman & Jane De Gay. London: Routledge, 1998.

 Dolan, Jill. “The Discourse of Feminisms: The Spectator and Representation”, The Routledge Reader in
Gender and Performance, eds., Lizbeth Goodman & Jane De Gay. London: Routledge, 1998.

(Debdatta Chowdhury: Lectures 19-20)

20th September

Lecture 19: Nation, Citizenship and Law

 Flavia Agnes. 2004. Law and Gender Inequality: The Politics of Women’s Rights in India. Oxford
University Press. pp.77-123
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 Tanika Sarkar. 2001. ‘Conjugality and Hindu Nationalism: Resisting Colonial Reason and the Death of
the Child Wife’, in Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community, Religion and Cultural Nationalism. Permanent Black.
Pp.119-225

 Lata Mani. 1989. ‘Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India’, in Kumkum Sangari,
Sudesh Vaid (eds.) Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History. Kali for Women. Pp.88-126.

Supplementary Readings:

 Sudhir Chandra. 2004. ‘Rukhmabai and her Case’, in Enslaved Daughters: Colonialism, Law and
Women’s Rights. Oxford University Press. pp.15-49

 Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. 2003. ‘Introduction: Women, Citizenship, Law and the Indian State’, in The
Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in Postcolonial India. Duke University Press. pp.1-37.

22 September

Lecture 20: Gender and Caste

 Uma Chakravarti. 2003. Gendering Caste through a Feminist Lens. Stree. Pp.6-65
 Sharmila Rege. 2013. Against the Madness of Manu. Navayana. pp.13-56, 137-187
 Sharmila Rege. 2005. ‘Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of ‘Difference’ and ‘Towards a Dalit
Feminist Standpoint Position’, in Maitrayee Chaudhuri (ed). Feminism in India. Women Unlimited. Pp.
211-225
 Anupama Rao. 2009. ‘The Sexual Politics of Caste: Violence and the Ritual-Archaic’, in The Caste
Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India. Permanent Black. Pp.217-240.

Supplementary Readings:

 Anupama Rao. 2005. ‘Understanding Sirasgaon: Notes Towards Conceptualising the role of Law, Caste
and Gender in a case of ‘atrocity’, in Gender and Caste. Zed Books Unlimited. pp.276-309
 Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. 2003. ‘Outlaw Women: The Politics of Phoolan Devi’s Surrender, 1983’, in The
Scandal of the State: Women, Law and Citizenship in Postcolonial India. Duke University Press. pp.212-
235
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(Trina Nileena Banerjee: Lectures 21-24)

10th October

Lecture 21: Intersections: Gender, Race and Class (I)

 Mitchell, Juliet. “Women: The Longest Revolution”, New Left Review, I/40, 1966, pp. 11-37.

 Tharu, Susie. 1998. ‘Citizenship and its Discontents’, A Question of Silence, ed., Mary. E. John and
Janaki Nair. New Delhi: Kali for Women, pp. 216–243.

13th October

Lecture 22: Intersections: Gender, Race and Class (II)

 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism,” Critical Inquiry,
12, 1985, pp. 243-7, 247-51, 252-61.

 Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “The Rani of Sirmur: An Essay in Reading the Archives”, History and
Theory, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1985, pp. 247-272.

17th October

Lecture 23: The Subject of Freedom: On and Beyond the Question of the Veil (I)

 Saba Mahmood: “The Subject of Freedom”, in Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist
Subject. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 1-39.
 Lila Abu-Lughod: “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”, American Anthropologist, Vol. 104, No.
3, 2002, pp. 782-790.
 Joan Wallach Scott, “Introduction” and “The Headscarf Controversies” in The Politics of the Veil.
Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007, pp. 1-41.

20th October

Lecture 24: The Subject of Freedom: On and Beyond the Question of the Veil (II)

 Lila Abu-Lughod: “Contentious Issues: Third World Feminisms and Identity Politics”, Women's Studies
Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 3/4, Internationalizing the Curriculum (Fall -Winter, 1998), pp. 25-29.
 Saba Mahmood, “Women’s Agency within Feminist Historiography”, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 84,
No. 4 (October 2004), pp. 573-579.
 Fatima Mernissi, “The Muslim Concept of Active Female Sexuality”, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female
Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987, pp.
27-45.
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 Leila Ahmed, “The 1980s: Exploring Women’s Motivations”, in A Quiet Revolution: From the Middle
East to America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011, pp. 117-130.

(Anirban Das: Lectures 25-26)

24th October

Lecture 25: The Body and Ethics of a ‘Beyond’

 Irigaray, Luce. 1995. "The Question of the Other." in Yale French Studies 87, 7-19.
 Derrida, Jacques. 1987 (1984). “Women in the Beehive: A Seminar” in Men in Feminism ed., Alice Jardine
and Paul Smith, 189-203. New York and London: Methuen.

Suggested Readings –

Grosz, Elizabeth. 1997. “Ontology and Equivocation: Derrida’s Politics of Sexual Difference” in Feminist
Interpretations of Jacques Derrida ed., Nancy J. Holland. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University
Press.

27th October

Lecture 25: Figures of the ‘Beyond’: Multiple Registers

Derrida, Jacques. 1979. Spurs: Nietzsche’s Styles, tr., Barbara Harlow. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.

Suggested Readings –

Das, Anirban. 2010. “Thinking the Body: Beyond the Topos of Man” in Toward a Politics of the
(Im)Possible: The Body in Third World Feminisms. London, New York, Delhi: Anthem Press.

.
(Debdatta Chowdhury: Lectures 27-29)

31st October

Lecture 27: Queer Theory

 Annamarie Jagose. 1997. Queer Theory: An Introduction.

 Interview with Gayle Rubin, in Elizabeth Weed and Naomi Schor (eds). Feminism meets Queer Theory.

 Michel Foucault. ‘We Other Victorians’, ‘The Perverse Implantation’, Scientia Sexualis’, in The History
of Sexuality Vol. I. pp. 1-74

 Eve Sedgwick. 1990. ‘Introduction’, in Epistemology of the Closet. Pp. 1-66.

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3rd November

Lecture 28: Queer Politics in India

 Jyoti Puri. Sexual States: Governance and the Struggle Over Anti-Sodomy Law (select chapters).

7th November

Lecture 29: Transgender Narratives and Effeminacy

 Gayatri Reddy. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity (select chapters)
 Kathryn Hansen. Stages of Life: Indian Theatre Autobiographies. (select chapters)

Supplementary Readings:

 Judith Butler. ‘Doing Justice to Someone: Sex Reassignment and Allegories of Transexuality’ (pp. 57-
74), ‘Undiagnosing Gender’ (75-101), in Undoing Gender.
 Ashwini Sukthankar. 2007. ‘Rights of Transsexuals in India’, in Nivedita Menon (Ed). Sexualities.
Women Unlimited. pp. 91-102.