Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)

Studies - András Tarnóc: Voices From the Wild Zone: Three Versions of the Feminist Aesthetic in American Culture

counterparts, white feminism is middle-class based. Thus, in this case female alterity can only be justified by anatomical factors as women's social position assures an insider status. White women are not caught in the grip of interlocking oppressions as sex-based disadvantages are not coupled with race or ethnicity-induced discrimination. Whereas white feminist thought according to Heilbrun had to contend with being "scorned or ignored," Black and Chicana feminists experienced a greater degree of hostility. In both cases minority males angrily rejected the former as traitors to their cause, as followers of black feminism are considered to have "left the home," and the myth of Malinche's treason signifies the Chicana experience. Feminist theory examines the relationship between male and female discourses in four possible ways. Feminist critique aims to identify and offer means of elimination of traditional barriers toward women's social and cultural progress: sexism and the patriarchal society. Feminist extensions challenge women's cultural and historic exclusion by providing alternative knowledges and histories. Feminist deconstruction undermines the binary structures of patriarchal theory, weakening such dyads as identity-difference, mind-body, subjectobject. and reality-representation. Also, feminist deconstruction achieves a reversal of the relations between these binary terms by exchanging the position of the subordinated and the dominant. Feminist explorations attempt to change the linguistic foundation of women's oppression, to develop "autonomous woman defined categories and forms of utterance" in order to fight against patriarchal constraints (Blain 362-364). The four components of feminist thought are reflected to varying degrees in the schools discussed above. In the case of white feminism critique, deconstruction, and exploration are dominant. As feminist critique is dedicated to offer means of elimination of barriers to women's social and cultural advancement, the centrifugal views of radical feminism, and the concept of a female culture are indicative of this purpose. The movement's broadsweeping effort to fight against the division of the world into public and private spheres, and its attempt to undermine the notion of gender demonstrates a desire to deconstruct such fundamental dyads of patriarchal theory as "publicprivate," and "sex-gender." Du Plessis' notion of a female culture and mode of expression qualifies as feminist exploration, or an attempt to eliminate the linguistic foundation of women's subservient position.