Theories of the Flesh: Latinx and Latin American Feminisms, Transformation, and Resistance

by Andrea J. Pitts, Mariana Ortega, José Medina

Overview

"A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives all fuse to create a politic born of necessity," writes activist Cherríe L. Moraga. This volume of new essays stages an intergenerational dialogue among philosophers to introduce and deepen engagement with U.S Latinx and Latin American feminist philosophy, and to explore their "theories in the flesh." It explores specific intellectual contributions in various topics in U.S. Latinx and Latin American feminisms that stand alone and are unique and valuable; analyzes critical contributions that U.S. Latinx and Latin American interventions have made in feminist thought more generally over the last several decades; and shows the intellectual and transformative value of reading U.S Latinx and Latin American feminist theorizing.

The collection features a series of essays analyzing decolonial approaches within U. S. Latinx and Latin American feminist philosophy, including studies of the functions of gender within feminist theory, everyday modes of resistance, and methodological questions regarding the scope and breadth of decolonization as a critical praxis. Additionally, essays examine theoretical contributions to feminist discussions of selfhood, narrativity, and genealogy, as well as novel epistemic and hermeneutical approaches within the field. A number of contributors in the book address themes of aesthetics and embodiment, including issues of visual representation, queer desire, and disability within U. S. Latinx and Latin American feminisms.

Together, the essays in this volume are groundbreaking and powerful contributions in the fields of U.S Latinx and Latin American feminist philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190062972
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/25/2020
Series:	Studies in Feminist Philosophy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	1,057,171
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Andrea J. Pitts is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Their publications appear in IJFAB: The International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, Hypatia, Radical Philosophy Review, and Inter-American Journal of Philosophy. Pitts is also co-editor of Beyond Bergson: Examining Race and Colonialism through the Writings of Henri Bergson (SUNY Press, 2019).

Mariana Ortega is Associate Professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies, and an affiliate in Latina/o Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She is co-editor with Linda Martín-Alcoff of the anthology Constructing the Nation: A Race and Nationalism Reader (SUNY Press, 2009) and author of In-Between: Latina Feminist Phenomenology, Multiplicity, and the Self (SUNY Press, 2016). She is the founder and director of the Latina/x Feminisms Roundtable (Formerly the Roundtable on Latina Feminism), a forum for U. S. Latina/x and Latin American feminisms.

José Medina is Walter Dill Scott Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. His books include Speaking from Elsewhere (SUNY Press, 2006), and The Epistemology of Resistance (Oxford University Press, 2012), which received the 2012 North-American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award.

Table of Contents

Preface
Mariana Ortega
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Andrea J. Pitts and José Medina

Section I. Decolonial Movidas: Gender, Community, and Liberation
Chapter 1: Decolonizing Feminist Theory: Latina Contributions to the Debate, Linda Martín Alcoff
Chapter 2: Revisiting Gender: Toward a Decolonial Feminism, María Lugones
Chapter 3: From Women's Movements to Feminist Theories (and Vice Versa), María Luisa Femenías
Chapter 4: Enrique Dussel's Etica de la liberación, US Women-of-Color Decolonizing Practices, and Coalitionary Politics amid Difference, Laura E. Pérez
Chapter 5: Decolonial Feminist Movidas: A Caribeña (Re)thinks "Privilege," the Wages of Gender, and Building Complex Coalitions, Xhercis Méndez

Section II. Making Feminist Selves: Self-Authority, Affect, and Narrativity
Chapter 6: Philosophical Feminism in Latin America, Francesca Gargallo
Chapter 7: Crossroads and In-Between Spaces: A Meditation on Anzaldúa and Beyond, Ofelia Schutte
Chapter 8: "Remaking Human Being": Loving, Kaleidoscopic Consciousness in Helena María Viramontes's Their Dogs Came with Them, Paula M. L. Moya
Chapter 9: African, Latina, and Feminist: Marta Moreno Vega's Remembrance of Life in El Barrio in the 1950s, Theresa Delgadillo

Section III. Knowing Otherwise: Language, Translation, and Alternative Consciousness
Chapter 10: Latin America, Decoloniality, and Translation: Feminists Building Connectant Epistemologies, Claudia de Lima Costa
Chapter 11: Embodied Genealogies: Anzaldúa, Nietzsche, and Diverse Epistemic Practice, Natalie Cisneros
Chapter 12: Between Hermeneutic Violence and Alphabets of Survival, Elena Flores Ruíz
Chapter 13: Hallucinating Knowing: (Extra)ordinary Consciousness, More-Than-Human Perception, and Other Decolonizing Remedios within Latina and Xicana Feminist Theories, Pedro J. DiPietro

Section IV. Aesthetic Longings: Latina Styles, Bodily Vulnerability, and Queer Desires
Chapter 14: Stylized Resistance: Boomerang Perception and Latinas in the Twenty-First Century, Stephanie Rivera Berruz
Chapter 15: Deracializing Representations of Femininity and the Marketing of Latinidad: Zoe Saldana and L'Oréal's True Match Campaign, Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo and Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo
Chapter 16: Cámara Queer: Longing, the Photograph, and Queer Latinidad, Mariana Ortega
Chapter 17: Vulnerable Bodies: Juana Alicia's Latina Feminism and Transcorporeal Environmentalism, Julie Avril Minich

Editorial Reviews

"This is not a survey or 'introductory' text, but a rich and vibrant engagement with and expansion of that set of developing traditions gathered under the rubric of Latinx and Latin American feminisms. As such, and drawing together as it does a wide generational and international spectrum of thinkers, Theories of the Flesh is on the cutting edge of profound and important interventions in philosophy and feminist theory. This is a truly important collection that will, in due course, come to stand as a watershed moment in the ongoing efforts (movidas) by Latinx and Latin American feminists to shift the geography of reason." — American Philosophical Association Newsletter

From the Publisher