Revisiting feminist matters in the post-linguistic turn

John Dewey, new materialisms, and contemporary feminist thought

Clara Fischer

pp. 83-102

in: Clara Fischer, Luna Dolezal (eds), New feminist perspectives on embodiment, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

In this chapter, I sketch some recent developments in feminist thought and present these alongside John Dewey's work to assess what place pragmatism might assume in debates on contemporary, post-linguistic turn feminism. My task for this chapter is threefold: I redress the elision of pragmatism in the conversation around affect theory, new materialisms, and contemporary feminist theorising; I trace some of the confluences between Dewey's work on nature and materiality, and the new materialist work of Stacy Alaimo and Karen Barad; and finally, I argue that pragmatism can form a useful resource for those interested in addressing new materialist concerns about concrete embodiment and materiality in post-linguistic turn feminist theory.

Cited authors

Dewey John

Barad Karen