Moral Textures: Feminist Narratives in the Public Sphere Book

Maria Pia Lara develops a new approach to public sphere theory and a novel understanding of the history of the feminist struggle in this bold, groundbreaking work. When dominated groups create publicly-oriented social movements, she argues, they seek to frame their demands in compelling narrative forms. Through these new tales, they can become, for the first time, active subjects in their own stories. In making her argument, Lara examines a very wide range of women's narratives: autobiographies of eighteenth-century salonnires, the novels of Jane Austen, the writings of contemporary women activists, and the portrayal of women in television and film. Taking stock of contemporary feminist writings in social science, history, literature, jurisprudence, and philosophy, she suggests that they can be viewed not only as empirical accounts of injustice but also as cultural narratives. Lara contends that these narratives have transformed the individual identities of women even as they have expanded universal moral claims in a revolutionary way. "This pathbreaking book offers a novel feminist revision of theories of the public sphere, one that sensitively defends critical theory against its most recent critics." -Joan B. Landes, Pennsylvania State University "Maria Pia Lara imaginatively and creatively appropriates and reweaves motifs from the thinking of Habermas, Arendt, Ricoeur, and a variety of feminist writers in order to develop a highly original perspective on critical feminism. This outstanding contribution to a critical feminist outlook is based on her sensitivity to the role of fiction, biography, and autobiography in the construction of women's identities. The total effect is to add vivid concreteness and aesthetic sensitivity to a new direction in feminist critical theory." -Richard J. Bernstein, New School for Social ResearchRead More