CFP: 'Gender and History'
Call for papers: Essays for special issue of 'Gender and History'
Translating Feminism in China, Dorothy Ko and Wang Zheng, editors.
Special issue editors: Wang Zheng,Women's Studies, University of Michigan wangzhen@umich.edu and Dorothy Ko, History, Barnard College dko@barnard.edu
Deadline for submission is May 15, 2005. Please send inquiries and submissions to the journal (gnh@umich.edu ), with copies to the two editors (email address above).
"Feminism" is a bad name in China today in and out of the academy, connoting the image of a polemical man-hating he-woman. This misrecognition conceals a century long process in which feminism has been deeply entangled in China's political, cultural, and social transformations, itself a symptom of feminist troubles rooted in the particular dynamics of modern China in globalization. As a result, the meanings of "feminism" and its place in the history and women's movement in modern China have been woefully neglected or maligned. The goal of this special issue is to reopen a line of inquiry for both China studies and feminist studies by creating a space for an interdisciplinary conversation on the problems and possibilities involved in translating feminism. First, we welcome contributions on the tumultuous history of the introduction of feminism to China. Feminism emerged in modern China as a response of elite men and women to imperialist colonization and capitalist globalization. Examples of topics that require critical examination include the tensions between nationalism and globalism or the contradictions between educated women and their working-class counterparts. Second, we welcome essays that focus on the linguistic and discursive formulations of feminisms in modern and contemporary China. The careers of such categories as "agency," "liberation" and "gender" require critical investigation, as do alternative views of body, self, and identity that do not take the enlightenment male subject as presumed norm. Third, we welcome contributions from non-specialists of China on the political and cultural dynamics of "translation" or "translingual practices" in an "intercultural zone." The fate of feminism in the semi-colonial context of the first half of the twentieth century, the communist statist context of the third quarter of the twentieth century, and in the global capitalist economy of the last quarter of the twentieth century provides fruitful ground for comparative analyses. A special issue on China highlights the importance of local and ethnographic knowledge in our re-conceptualization of "global feminism." The linguistic specificity of Chinese also instructs us on the parochialism of Anglophone discourses. In looking to the past century and to China, this special issue hopes to contribute to the articulation of the terms and politics of a post-colonial feminism that would remain relevant to our globalized future. This call for papers is issued in tandem with an international conference on"Feminism in China since The Women's Bell" held in Shanghai to commemorate the centennial of one of China's most influential feminist texts. Originally scheduled for June 2003, it took place in June 2004. Articles for the special issue (Fall 2006) will be selected from both responses to this call for papers and the conference papers.
Translating Feminism in China, Dorothy Ko and Wang Zheng, editors.
Special issue editors: Wang Zheng,Women's Studies, University of Michigan wangzhen@umich.edu and Dorothy Ko, History, Barnard College dko@barnard.edu
Deadline for submission is May 15, 2005. Please send inquiries and submissions to the journal (gnh@umich.edu ), with copies to the two editors (email address above).
"Feminism" is a bad name in China today in and out of the academy, connoting the image of a polemical man-hating he-woman. This misrecognition conceals a century long process in which feminism has been deeply entangled in China's political, cultural, and social transformations, itself a symptom of feminist troubles rooted in the particular dynamics of modern China in globalization. As a result, the meanings of "feminism" and its place in the history and women's movement in modern China have been woefully neglected or maligned. The goal of this special issue is to reopen a line of inquiry for both China studies and feminist studies by creating a space for an interdisciplinary conversation on the problems and possibilities involved in translating feminism. First, we welcome contributions on the tumultuous history of the introduction of feminism to China. Feminism emerged in modern China as a response of elite men and women to imperialist colonization and capitalist globalization. Examples of topics that require critical examination include the tensions between nationalism and globalism or the contradictions between educated women and their working-class counterparts. Second, we welcome essays that focus on the linguistic and discursive formulations of feminisms in modern and contemporary China. The careers of such categories as "agency," "liberation" and "gender" require critical investigation, as do alternative views of body, self, and identity that do not take the enlightenment male subject as presumed norm. Third, we welcome contributions from non-specialists of China on the political and cultural dynamics of "translation" or "translingual practices" in an "intercultural zone." The fate of feminism in the semi-colonial context of the first half of the twentieth century, the communist statist context of the third quarter of the twentieth century, and in the global capitalist economy of the last quarter of the twentieth century provides fruitful ground for comparative analyses. A special issue on China highlights the importance of local and ethnographic knowledge in our re-conceptualization of "global feminism." The linguistic specificity of Chinese also instructs us on the parochialism of Anglophone discourses. In looking to the past century and to China, this special issue hopes to contribute to the articulation of the terms and politics of a post-colonial feminism that would remain relevant to our globalized future. This call for papers is issued in tandem with an international conference on"Feminism in China since The Women's Bell" held in Shanghai to commemorate the centennial of one of China's most influential feminist texts. Originally scheduled for June 2003, it took place in June 2004. Articles for the special issue (Fall 2006) will be selected from both responses to this call for papers and the conference papers.
posted at 8:28 AM
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