Moral Textures: Feminist narratives in the public sphere PDF
Preview Moral Textures: Feminist narratives in the public sphere
MORAL TEXTURES FEMINIST NARRATIVES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE MARIA LARA PIA BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY „ Copley Square Boston MA 021 16 Moral Textures WITHDRAWN No longerthe property ofthe Boston Pubfe Lfcrary. Sate ofthis materia! benefited ®s Library To Alexander, Jeff For all he knows. Moral Textures Feminist Narratives in the Public Sphere Maria Pia Lara University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London ©Maria Pia Lara 1998 UniversityofCalifornia Press Berkeleyand LosAngeles,California UniversityofCalifornia Press,Ltd. London,England Allrightsreserved. Exceptforthequotationofshortpassagesforthe purposesofcriticismand review,nopartofthispublicationmaybe reproduced,storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inany formor byanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingor otherwise,withoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher. PublishedbyarrangementwithPolityPressinassociationwithBlackwell PublishersLtd. ISBN0-520-21776-4(hardcover) ISBN0-520-21777-2 (paperback) Typeset in 10on 11 pt Palatini byAce Filmsetting Ltd, Frome, Somerset Printed inGreat Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Thisbook is printed on acid-freepaper. Contents Author's Note vi Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 Part I From the Aesthetic totheMoral Sphere 21 1 Autobiographies and Biographies: TheConstruction of Women's Identity 23 2 Communicative Rationality: BetweenSpheres ofValidity 50 3 Feminismasan ElocutionaryModel 68 4 Autonomyand Authenticityas Textures oftheMoral Subject 81 5 NarrativeCultural Interweavings: Between Facts and Fiction 92 Part II From theMoral to the Political Sphere 105 6 Justiceand Solidarity: Women in the Public Sphere 107 7 The Moral FoundationofRecognition: ACritical Revision ofThreeModels 120 8 FeministModels ofRecognition: ProblemsofMulticulturalism 146 Conclusion 165 Notes 172 Bibliography 213 IndexofNames 224 IndexofSubjects 227 Author's Note This book would not have made its way into English without the patient assistance, hard work and personal involvement of my good friend and translator, Laura Gorham. Having translated some early drafts from Spanish into English, she later helped me find ways to formulate my English drafts into more fluent prose. At the startofthis project,shewasfundamentalinhelpingmefindfinancialsupportfrom the FideicomisoMexico/USA. I am deeplygrateful toher. Acknowledgements The preparation and completion of this book, as with any creative work, has incurred profound debts to many persons, from those who heard the arguments in their initial form, through those who helped shape and sharpen the viewpoints offered here, to those who read manydifferentversionsofthemanuscriptandofferedvaluablesugges- tions abouthowitcouldbeimproved and revised. Thebookreceivedvital supportfrom the Fideicomiso Mexico/USA, fundedjointlyby the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bancomer Foun- dation through the Fondo Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes in Mexico (FONCA).Afundestablishedtostrengthenacademicandliter- ary ties between Mexico and the United States, this institution facili- tated the translation of the early drafts of my book from Spanish into English. I am also indebted to my university, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM)-Iztapalapa, not only for its continuing financial supportthroughouttheyearsbutforthe fellowship thatallowedmeto spenda yearin Berlin, a trimesterinSwedenand twotrimestersinLos Angeles. I am especially thankful to Dr Julio Rubio, General Rector of UAM, Dr Jose Luis Gazquez, Rector ofmy campus at UAM, Gregorio Vidal,DeanofSocialSciencesand Humanities,andJoseLema,Chairof my Department of Philosophy. Without their help and support, this bookwould nothavebeencompleted. I also wish to record my gratitude to the Institut fur Hermeneutik at the Freie Universitat, Berlin, and especially to its Director, Professor Albrecht Wellmer, for allowing me to spend my 1994-5 sabbatical year in the Institut and to participate in its many fruitful activities through- out the year. Christoph Menke made possible my initial connection with the Institut, and Ina Maria Gumbel, its secretary, helped me in innumerable and generous ways during my year in Berlin. I am also grateful to ProfessorAxel Honneth forallowingmetoparticipateinhis viii Acknowledgements ColloquiumattheSocialScienceInstituteoftheFreieUniversitat. I was very fortunate to be at the Freie Universitat at such a stimulating moment. I wish particularly to acknowledge and thank the friends I made in Berlin, Marion Rudzki and Hermann Steffens, Maeve Cooke and Mar- tin Santer, and Begonya Saez and Daniel Saez, all of whom gave me invaluable support. Professor Alessandro Ferrara allowed metopresentanearly draftof one chapter from thisbook to his Multicultural Seminar at the Univer- sity of La Sapienza in Rome. Bjorn Wittrock, Director of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (SCASSS) in Uppsala, also gave me an opportunity to presenta lecture drawn from thisbook and to share my research with the exciting group offeminist scholars in residence thereinspring 1996. I am also grateful to those who have participated in the annual meetings ofthe Philosophy and Social Sciences group in Prague; these were initiated by Jurgen Habermas in Dubrovnik and are now held undertheauspicesoftheInstituteofPhilosophyoftheCzechAcademy of Sciences. Especially I wish to thank the recent directors of these meetings,JeanCohen,SeylaBenhabib,SandroFerraraandAxelHonneth, throughwhomIhavebeenabletoestablishapermanentdialoguewith many scholarswhohavebecomemycolleagues and friends. DavidHeldgavemytypescripthisinitialsupport. Histrustthrough- out the reviewing and revising process was invaluable to me, as were his open and encouraging suggestions for improvements. I was also very lucky in the anonymous reviewer chosen by Polity Press. The clarity and insight of this detailed evaluation not only showed me possible weaknesses in my arguments but ways to strengthen them, anditdeepenedmyunderstandingofthewholefieldofcriticalfeminist studies.IonlyhopethatIhavesufficientlyprofitedfromthisreviewer's greathelp. I would like to thank RuthThackeray, whose work as copy editor has been painstaking and Julia Harsant and Sue Leigh at Polity Press forall theirhelp. I also wish to thank Joan B. Landes for her constant commentaries, advice and support as she read various drafts of the chapters of this book.Herpersonalandintellectualfriendshipmeansagreatdealtome, firstin Sweden, later in Mexico and Los Angeles. I am also deeply indebted to Nora Rabotnikof, who gave this manu- script the last and very important critical reading and offered final suggestions for revision. Throughout our many years of friendship, Nora has taught me how emotional and intellectual solidarity can be deeplyinterrelated. JeffAlexander, to whom this book is dedicated, also helped edit my English prose, but, much more importantly, he shared the whole crea-
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