Kathy E. Ferguson 
The Man Question 
Visions of Subjectivity in Feminist Theory

Turning on its head that familiar ‘woman question, ‘ this innovative work poses masculinity as a problem that requires explanation. Ferguson rebukes the sense of coherence contained in patriarchal theory in the name of a voice that both calls upon and challenges the category
woman. Stepping back from the opposition of male and female, she artfully loosens the hold of gender on life and meaning, creating and at the same time deconstructing a women’s point of view. Posing the ‘man question’ provides a way not only to view male power and female subordination but also to valorize and problematize women’s experiences, thus destabilizing conventional notions of
man and
woman.

Table of Content

Preface 

Acknowledgments 


1. Interpretation and Genealogy in Feminism 

Ontologies and Subjectivities 

Languages, Histories, Politics 

Ironic Convergences and Common Front Politics 


2. Male-Ordered Subjectivity 

Identity and Desire in Hegel 

Feminist Alternatives to the Hegelian Subject 


3· Praxis Feminism 

Creating Praxis Feminism 

Essentialism? 

Ironic Interventions 


4· Cosmic Feminism 

Creating Cosmic Feminism 

Kitsch, Appropriation, and Irony 


5· Linguistic Feminism 

Creating Linguistic Feminism 

Kitsch, Irony, and the Traffic In Between 


6. Mobile Subjectivities

Tragic Choices, Happy Endings, or Ironic Encounters

Class Encounters of a Third Kind

Ironic Convergences, Coalition Politics, and Kitsch


Notes

Bibliography

Index

 

About the author

Kathy E. Ferguson is Associate Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies at the University of Hawai’i, and author of The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy and Self, Society and Womankind: The Dialectic of Liberation.