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Sexual Experience: Foucault, Phenomenology, and Feminist Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Johanna Oksala
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Abstract

This paper explicates Foucault's conception of experience and defends it as an important theoretical resource for feminist theory. It analyzes Linda Alcoff's devastating critique of Foucault's account of sexuality and her reasons for advocating phenomenology as a more viable alternative. I agree with her that a philosophically sophisticated understanding of experience must remain central for feminist theory, but I demonstrate that her critique of Foucault is based on a mistaken view of his philosophical position as well as on a problematic understanding of phenomenology.

Type
CLUSTER: SEXUAL EXPRESSIONS
Information
Hypatia , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , Winter 2011 , pp. 207 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 by Hypatia, Inc.

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