The Way Out West: Development and the Rhetoric of Mobility in Postmodern Feminist Theory

In this essay, I trace a rhetorical affinity between feminist postmodern theory and an Enlightenment narrative of development. This affinity consists in the valorization of mobility and the repudiation of locatedness. Although feminists deploy this rhetoric in order to accommodate differences and to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hypatia 2000-07, Vol.15 (3), p.45-72
Main Author: PRITCHARD, ELIZABETH A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civil rights
Colonialism
Enlightenment
Females
Feminism
Feminist Theory
History
Human relations
Interpersonal communication
Mobility
Narratives
Personal relationships
Postfeminism
Postmodern feminism
Postmodern philosophy
Postmodern rhetoric
Postmodernism
Progress
Rhetoric
Social Development
Subjectivity
Sustainable development
Women
Womens rights movements
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Summary:In this essay, I trace a rhetorical affinity between feminist postmodern theory and an Enlightenment narrative of development. This affinity consists in the valorization of mobility and the repudiation of locatedness. Although feminists deploy this rhetoric in order to accommodate differences and to accustom readers to the instability that results from such accommodation, I show how this rhetoric works to justify Western colonial development and to efface women's very different experiences of mobility in the early twenty-first century.
ISSN:0887-5367
1527-2001
DOI:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2000.tb00330.x