Mater and Matter: A prelimary Cartography of material Feminisms
by Thomas Lemke
pp. 82-99 Issue 7 (4,1) – January-June 2017 ISSN (online): 2539/2239 ISSN (print): 2389-8232 DOI: 1017450/170105
Abstract
Recently, there has been a new interest in matter and materiality in feminist scholarship. The article situates contemporary material feminisms in relation to older traditions of feminist engagements with materialism. It discusses four distinctive features that I take to be important theoretical improvements and promising political prospects of material feminisms: (1) a stronger engagement with science; (2) the appreciation of material agency; (3) the emergence of a posthumanist perspective; and (4) a reevaluation and revision of ethics. The article provides a provisional mapping or preliminary cartography of this theoretical and empirical re-orientation, while pointing to some theoretical problems and possible drawbacks in current feminist debates and scholarship.