Generational Feminism: New Materialist Introduction to a Generative Approach

176 Pages·2015·1.641 MB·English

by  Iris van der Tuin

Generational Feminism
Generational Feminism
New Materialist Introduction to a
Generative Approach
Iris van der Tuin
LEXINGTONBOOKS
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Tuin,Irisvander.
Generationalfeminism:newmaterialistintroductiontoagenerativeapproach/IrisvanderTuin.
pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-7391-9017-3(cloth:alk.paper)--ISBN978-0-7391-9018-0(electronic)
1.Feminism.2.Feministtheory--Methodology.I.Title.
HQ1190.T852014
305.42--dc23
2014035503
TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
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PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
“Thistaskcannotbeundertakenwithanaïveacceptancethatourworkis
done(asinpostfeminism),norwiththefatalismthatnothingistobedone
(asinarevisionistsecondwave).Thisthirdfeministgenerationmust
undertaketheethicalactofmakingfeminism’stimenow.”
—KirstenCampbell(2004)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction:OnBeinganAgentofFeminism xi
1 TheKeyTermsofGenerationalFeminism 1
2 ClassifixationinFeministTheory 19
3 DutifulDaughters 39
4 GenerationinGenealogy 59
5 TheTransversalityofBarbaraMcClintock 73
6 TheFullForceofFeministGenealogy 95
Conclusion:AdvancingGenerativeFeminism 115
Epilogue:RhythmicalOrder 119
Bibliography 125
Index 145
AbouttheAuthor 153

v

Acknowledgments
This book is the result of having spent ten years as a researcher and
teacherofgenderstudiesandphilosophyofscienceintheDepartmentof
MediaandCultureStudiesandattheInstituteforCulturalInquiryofthe
Faculty of Humanities of Utrecht University, The Netherlands. In this
light,my explorationofthecanonoffeminist epistemologyhasastrong
institutional basis, is founded on intense teaching experience, and is in-
fused with the dreams and desires of many (international) colleagues,
peers, and students. The engagement with the feminist archive per-
formedwithakeeneyeforfeministnewmaterialismshasthereforebeen
a“material-affective”affair,toborrowarecenttermfromKarenBarad.I
believe that the knowledge produced has gained from this situatedness.
Foronething,thisbookisitselfafeministarchive,thearchiveofaperiod
of ten years that started with my PhD research—completed under the
guidance of Rosi Braidotti and defended on June 20, 2008—and which
will end on the 31st of August, 2014, the date that marks the end of my
post-doctoralproject“TheMaterialTurnintheHumanities”(NWO-Veni
275–20–029).
Mycompanionsatworkandathomeknowthatwritingthisbookwas
between me and my desk. Here, I do not intend to refer to concrete and
pre-existing material circumstances of writing. I am rather talking about
the constant longing for the materialization of the desk during the writ-
ing of this book. Many persons and institutions have made my desk-life
matter.RosiBraidotti,GloriaWekker,andtheentireteachingteamofthe
BA, AM, RM, and PhD in Gender Studies at Utrecht University, a team
led byRosemarie Buikema:Cecilia Åsberg,BabsBoter,MaaykeBotman,
MariekevanEijk,SanneKoevoets,Anne-MarieKorte,EvaMidden,Dom-
itilla Olivieri, Trude Oorschot, Bettina Papenburg, Sandra Ponzanesi,
Christine Quinan, Mariëlle Smith, Kathrin Thiele, Milica Trakilovic, Ber-
teke Waaldijk, Jami Weinstein, Doro Wiese, and Marta Zarzycka, plus
our many student assistants. Co-teacher and co-author Rick Dolphijn.
The Utrecht-based new materialist scholars of “4M”: Maaike Bleeker,
RosiBraidotti, KieneBrillenburgWurth,Rick Dolphijn, Birgit M. Kaiser,
Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Birgit Meyer, Janneke Raaijmakers, Joost Raes-
sens, Willemijn Ruberg, Kathrin Thiele, and Nanna Verhoeff. Our inter-
nationalcollaboratorsaroundtheCOSTActionIS1307NewMaterialism:
Networking European Scholarship on “How Matter Comes to Matter”
andbeyond(especially Marie-LuiseAngerer, Cecilia Åsberg,Karen Bar-

vii
viii Acknowledgments
ad,EstelleBarrett,CorinnaBath,BarbaraBolt,SophieChapple,OlgaCie-
lemecka, Rebecca Coleman, Felicity Colman, Noela Davis, Dorota Go-
lanska, Peta Hinton, Ilona Hongisto, Sari Irni, Katie King, Vicki Kirby,
Katve-Kaisa Kontturi, Dagmar Lorenz-Meyer, Hanna Meissner, Astrida
Neimanis,JussiParikka,BeatrizRevelles-Benavente,MonikaRogowska-
Stangret, Sigrid Schmitz, Milla Tiainen, Pat Treusch, Rachel Loewen
Walker, and Liu Xin). The Centre for the Humanities at Utrecht Univer-
sity where I met role models such as Claire Colebrook, Peter Galison,
Moira Gatens, Gregg Lambert, Genevieve Lloyd, Patricia MacCormack,
Paul Patton, John Protevi, and Joan W. Scott. The networks in European
Women’s and Gender Studies—Athena, Atgender, GenderACT, and
WeAVE—in the context of which I worked together with Kerstin Alne-
bratt, Angeliki Alvanoudi, Quirijn Backx, Annabel van Baren, Paulina
Bolek,ClaireBracken, Rosi Braidotti, Susan Cahill, VeraFonseca,Sabine
Grenz, Daniela Gronold, Brigitte Hipfl, Ulla M. Holm, Edyta Just, Mia
Liinason,LindaLundPedersen,MariadoMarPereira,MarliseMensink,
Cornelia Moeser, Anna Moring, Anita Mörth, Mischa Peters, Andrea
Pető, Sandra Prlenda, Beatriz Revelles-Benavente, Lisa de la Rie, Harriet
Silius,Elsevan derTuin, BertekeWaaldijk,Charliene vanderWerf, and
Marek M. Wojtaszek. Iveta Jusová of Antioch’s Women’s and Gender
Studies in Europe program and her students. Other colleagues invited
me to lecture in their institutions: Paula Albuquerque and Maartje Flier-
voet(HonoursProgrammeARTandRESEARCH,GerritRietveldAcade-
mie/UniversityofAmsterdam,TheNetherlands);CeciliaÅsberg(Tema
Genus, Linköping University, Sweden); Murat Aydemir, Esther Peeren,
andElizaSteinbock(NetherlandsInstituteforCulturalAnalysis);Marie-
Luise Angerer (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, Germany); Estelle
Barrett(CentreforMemory,Imagination,andInvention,DeakinUniver-
sity, Melbourne, Australia); Stephan Besser and Paul Bijl (Netherlands
Research School for Literary Studies); Barbara Bolt (Victorian College of
theArts,UniversityofMelbourne,Australia);NellavandenBrandt,Julie
Carlier, Chia Longman, and Griet Roets (Gender Research Seminar,
Ghent University, Belgium); Vera Bühlmann (CAAD—Chair for Com-
puter AidedArchitecturalDesign, Zürich,Switzerland); Ine Gevers(Yes
Naturally—Howartsavestheworld);SaraGoodman(CentreforGender
Studies, Lund University, Sweden); Hanna Hallgren, Ulrika Dahl, and
Jenny Sundén (Gender Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Swe-
den);AnnemieHalsema(DutchNetworkWomen’sStudiesPhilosophy);
FrédériqueBergholtzandAnnieFletcher(IfICan’tDance,IDon’tWant
To BePartofYourRevolution);Sari Irni and Liu Xin(Women’s Studies,
Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland); Marie-Louise Jansen, Chris-
tianScholl,andSaskiaWieringa(Gender,Sexuality,andCulture,Univer-
sity of Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Vicki Kirby (Graduate Reading
Group, School of Social Sciences and International Studies, The Univer-
sity of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia); Nina Lykke (Nordic Re-
Acknowledgments ix
search School in Gender Studies); Helen Malarky, Felicity Colman, and
JoannaHodge(InstituteofHumanitiesandSocialScienceResearch,Man-
chester Metropolitan University, UK); Patricia Pisters (Film-Philosophy
seminar, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Christine Quinan
(Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of California,
Berkeley,USA);AlexMartinisRoe(HausderKulturenderWeltandthe
Graduate School for the Arts of the Forum for Post-Graduate Studies at
Berlin University of the Arts, Germany); Adelina Sanchez-Espinosa
(GEMMA Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender
Studies, University of Granada, Spain); the late Saskia Poldervaart, and
PetradeVries(Women’sStudies,UniversityofAmsterdam,TheNether-
lands);SusanStryker(Institutefor LGBT Studies,UniversityofArizona,
Tucson, USA); and Karen Vintges (Political Philosophy, University of
Amsterdam,TheNetherlands).TheInternationalInformationCentreand
Archives for the Women’s Movement (now Atria) where I could rely on
the professional skills of Marianne Boere, Marjet Denijs, Annette Mevis,
GéMeulmeester,EvelienRijsbosch,ArletteStrijland,andMarijeWilmink
(of the feminist magazine Lover). Janet Browne, Lukas Engelmann, Peter
Galison,AudSisselHoel,andDaniëlandLizaMüggeatHarvardUniver-
sity, USA. Co-authors, co-organizers, and co-editors Bolette Blaagaard;
Maaike Bleeker and Jan van den Berg; Rosi Braidotti; Charles Esche and
Maria Hlavajova; Rosemarie Buikema; Susan Cahill and Claire Bracken;
AndrévanDokkum;RickDolphijn;ThereseGarstenauer,JosefinaBueno-
Alonso, Silvia Caporale-Bizzini, and Biljana Kasic; Evelien Geerts; Ine
Gevers; Daniela Gronold, Brigitte Hipfl, and Linda Lund; Alex Hebing;
Clare Hemmings; Peta Hinton; Aud Sissel Hoel; renée c. hoogland and
Petra de Vries; Birgit M. Kaiser and Kathrin Thiele; Mia Liinason; Anna
Moring; Beatriz Revelles-Benavente; Kristof van Rossum; Maria Serena
Sapegno; Anneke Smelik; Veronica Vasterling and Jantine Oldersma;
Mirjam Westen; and Marta Zarzycka. (Former) students Vasso Belia,
DieuwkeBoersma,Paulina Bolek,Sophie Chapple,ClaireCoumans,Lu-
cie Dalibert, Susanne Ferwerda, Gönül Fidan, Evelien Geerts, Magda
Gorska, Amarantha Groen, Jess Hardley, Alex Hebing, Dennis Kerck-
hoffs, Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki, Annelies Kleinherenbrink, Annette
Krauss, Trista Lin, Freya de Mink, Krizia Nardini, Sander Oosterom,
CharlottePoos,JanniePranger,RumenRachev,MariëttaRadomska,Lisa
Rebert,BeatrizRevelles-Benavente,AggelikiSifaki,BarnaSzarmosi,Bibi
Straatman, and Eline van Uden. Friends and family also supported the
project. Thanks to Juul van Hoof; renée c. hoogland; Piet, Mozes, and
NelsonvandeKar;Else,Ankie,andKnehvanderTuin.Icouldnothave
foreseen that the start of the research for this book, and its completion,
would coincide with the commemoration of the lives of my two grand-
mothers:HillechienvanderTuin-Bakker,whomwelostonMay7,2003,
and Willemina Kemkers-Harms, whom we lost on June 23, 2014. They