feminist hermeneutics dissertation

A Woman’s Place: Place-Based Theory, Hermeneutics, and Feminism

• First Online: 30 March 2017

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• Janet C. Wesselius 4  

Part of the book series: Contributions to Hermeneutics ((CONT HERMEN,volume 5))

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Women are all too familiar with discussions about their “proper place.” Often, and certainly historically, there has been no place for women to even participate in these discussions. But what is curious is that it also seems to be the case that there is no place for women—or, at least, a consideration of gender—in most place theories. Such an oversight in place theories is curious given all the attention feminist philosophy (epistemology in particular) has focused on “situatedness” as an important aspect of human life. In the first part of this paper, I shall explicate feminist analyses of “situatedness”; moreover, I shall argue that feminist philosophy already theorizes place in its thorough analysis of situatedness and thus cannot only correct the “gender blindness” of many place theories but can also extend the analyses of place theories. In this second part, I shall explore reasons why feminist philosophers have concentrated on “place” (or “situatedness”). In other words, what are the reasons for a similar focus in feminist philosophy and place theory, despite their mutual lack of engagement? I shall turn to hermeneutics as a theory that is taken up in both place theories and feminist philosophy. In the final section, I shall turn to the notion of “contingency” as a resource for both feminist theorizing and place-based theory.

I am grateful to the following colleagues for their insightful comments regarding this paper: Yvonne Becker, Roxanne Harde, Anne-Marie Link, Kim Misfeldt, and Sandra Rein. I must thank Paula Marentette in particular for her indefatigable encouragement. Finally, thank you to my fantastic research assistant Stacey Haugen for her help.

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The Geographic Vector

Thinking–Feminism–Place: Situating the 1980s Australian Women’s Peace Camps

Introduction: Situatedness and Place

“And I remember, too, it striking me very clearly - even then as a puzzled, slightly thoughtful little girl - that all this huge stretch of the Mersey flood plain had been entirely given over to boys” (Massey 1994 , 185).

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See Harding 2004 , 3: “…standpoint themes—“the logic of a standpoint”—also appeared in the thinking of a wide array of other prodemocratic social movements, which did not overtly claim the Marxian legacy, standpoint terminology, or, often, feminism. Race, ethnicity-based, anti-imperial, and Queer social justice movements routinely produce standpoint themes”.

See Wesselius, 2010 .

As well, feminist standpoint theorists are very clear to distinguish between a feminist standpoint and a woman’s or women’s standpoint; it is the feminist standpoint that enables a more accurate view of gender and gender relations.

In Haraway’s case, and many other feminist philosophers, the term “objective” is taken to be an epistemic honorific. See Wesselius 2001 .

While feminists have paid more attention to hermeneutics than to place theories, according to Code ( 2002 , 2), they have not been as attracted to Gadamer’s work as one might expect largely because of his interest in tradition and the “conservativism” that is revealed in “his respect for” tradition.

Of course, ‘female’ refers to sex and ‘femininity’ refers to gender; however, as Lloyd ( 1993 ) argues in the preface to the second edition, given the metaphorical nature of this table, gender (masculinity and femininity) is implicated in the inclusion of sex (male and female) on this table.

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Wesselius, J.C. (2017). A Woman’s Place: Place-Based Theory, Hermeneutics, and Feminism. In: Janz, B. (eds) Place, Space and Hermeneutics. Contributions to Hermeneutics, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52214-2_34

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Gadamer’s Hermeneutics as a Model For the Feminist Standpoint Theory

2018, Hitit Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi

This work which reconstructs Gadamer’s hermeneutics for guiding feminist standpoint theory consists of five chapters. Firstly, several possible feminist standpoint theories and their difficulties in addressing how knowledge is situated yet true are clarified. Secondly, it will be examined that Gadamer’s proposal for the relevance of the historicity on the reaching to truth. Thirdly, we will discuss Gadamer’s notion of fusion of horizons as a way to reach to truth. Fourthly, we will elaborate Wasterling’s critique against Gadamer and some arguments that Gadamer’s hermeneutics substitutes feminist epistemology for masculine epistemology.  Finally, this paper will evaluate Gadamer’s proposal for hermeneutics is appropriate for feminist standpoint theory, if so, how it is appropriate.

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This chapter reflects on the ways in which feminist responses to Gadamer frequently criticize his account of tradition as being overly conservative and totalizing or identify it as dynamic and attentive to alterity. Turning to Gadamer’s understanding of tradition helps us make sense both of these ambivalent responses to his work and the tradition of feminism. By paying specific attention to tradition, we are better able to identify which voices continue to be silenced and where imperialism, racism, or sexism remain unthought.

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The paper critically engages with contemporary theories of cross-cultural understanding and cross-cultural subjectivity found in the areas of intercultural hermeneutics, intercultural social theory and the discourse on the stranger. Drawing on Gadamerian hermeneutics the paper takes some preliminary steps in formulating an alternative conception of the in-between subject and cross-cultural interpretation that incorporates the ambivalence of boundaries, the enabling dimension of essentialism and acknowledges the role that fore-meanings and fore-structures have on cross-cultural understanding. In contrast to existing theories I conclude that the cross-cultural subject is situated within the intercultural encounter rather than dwelling above it.

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Toward a Latin American Feminist Hermeneutics: A Dialogue with the Biblical Methodologies of Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, Phyllis Trible, Carlos Mesters, and Pablo Richard

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Feminism and hermeneutics.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Feminists often look to postmodern philosophy for a framework within which to treat difference. We might more productively look to a hermeneutic philosophy that emphasizes the interpretive dimensions of difference and allows us to acknowledge the partiality of our understanding. Hence, we might also recognize the importance of a hermeneutic conversation unconstrained by relations of power or ideology in which all nonexclusionary interpretive voices can be educated by one another.

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• Volume 8, Issue 1
• Georgia Warnke
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.1993.tb00629.x

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