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 The Power Of Feminist TheoryDomination, Resistance, Solidarityby Amy Allen Oct 25, 2000
DescriptionPower is clearly a crucial concept for feminist theory. Insofar as feminists are interested in analyzing power, it is because they have an interest in understanding, critiquing, and ultimately challenging the multiple array of unjust power relations affecting women in contemporary Western societies, including sexism, racism, heterosexism, and class oppression. In The Power of Feminist Theory, Amy Allen diagnoses the inadequacies of previous feminist conceptions of power, and draws on the work of a diverse group of theorists of power, including Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Hannah Arendt, in order to construct a new feminist conception of power. The conception of power developed in this book enables readers to theorize domination, resistance, and solidarity, and, perhaps more importantly, to do so in a way that illuminates the interrelatedness of these three modalities of power. Reviews"Amy Allen's The Power of Feminist Theory represents a bold, original, and remarkably lucid effort to develop a new and more adequate feminist conception of power. Drawing from the very distinct analyses of power by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Hannah Arendt to develop a more complete account, Allen not only advances the feminist discussion of power, but also manages to say something original about all three." "...An insightful but not hagiographic reconstruction of Foucault's theory of power; a careful, clear reading of Butler's resolution of problems in that theory; an explicitly feminist rehabilitation of some of Arendt's most germinal ideas; and, most of all, a powerful set of analytic lenses with which to view domination, resistance, and solidarity that does not obscure their complex, multifaceted interconnections." “Allen’s multifacted model of power provides a theoretical blueprint for the comprehensive analysis of systems of domination. More important is the significance of her assessment for the collective empowerment of feminists and other oppressed groups.” "Amy Allen's The Power of Feminist Theory represents a bold, original, and remarkably lucid effort to develop a new and more adequate feminist conception of power. Drawing from the very distinct analyses of power by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Hannah Arendt to develop a more complete account, Allen not only advances the feminist discussion of power, but also manages to say something original about all three." "...An Insightful but not hagiographic reconstruction of Foucault's theory of power; a careful, clear reading of Butler's resolution of problems in that theory; an explicitly feminist rehabilitation of some of Arendt's most germinal ideas; and, most of all, a powerful set of analytic lenses with which to view domination, resistance, and solidarity that does not obscure their complex, multifaceted interconnections." "Allen's book is an important contribution towards resolving an impasse between on the one hand, feminist theoreticians committed to recognizing the constitutive impact of power in women's lives and those on the other, who are committed to normative social analyses. With her remarkable talent for clear and trenchant argumentation and an enviable talent for drawing just the right distinctions, Allen moves feminist theory to a new and I believe, more fruitful level."
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