• Corpus ID: 147855820

Marxist Feminist Dialectics for the 21st Century

@article{Hartsock1998MarxistFD,
  title={Marxist Feminist Dialectics for the 21st Century},
  author={Nancy C. M. Hartsock},
  journal={Science \& Society},
  year={1998},
  volume={62},
  pages={400-413}
}

• N. Hartsock
• Published 1998
• Sociology
• Science & Society

Marxist dialectics contain several features that can help feminist theorists gain a better understanding of social life. First, Marxist dialectics call for the development of alternatives to Enlightenment accounts of what is to count as truth or knowl- edge. Second, Marx's work provides materials for a more nu- anced and socially embedded understanding of subjectivity and agency than is available from either contemporary liberal theo- ries or post-structuralist theories. And third, the understanding of the relation between knowledge and power present in Marx's work provides important criteria for what can count as better, or privileged, knowledges. IS AN EFFORT TO ARGUE that from the perspective of feminist theory we need to both excavate and transform Marx- ist theory to address issues of the present and the future. For me, these issues include most centrally taking analytic account of inter- secting axes of domination along the lines of race, gender, and sexu- ality, as well as class. The central issue I want to address here is that of what Marxist theory, especially the dialectical understanding of the world contained in that theory, can provide in the way of resources for contemporary analysis. Feminist theory has certainly challenged and rewritten Marxist theory. The period of the "unhappy marriage" of Marxism and femi- nism in which the two were one and that one was Marxism has come