Figures of Resistance: Essays in Feminist Theory

The changing face of feminist discourse as reflected by the career of one of its preeminent scholars Figures of Resistance brings together the unpublished lectures and little-seen essays of internationally renowned theorist Teresa de Lauretis, spanning over twenty years of her finest work. Thirty years after the height of feminist theory, this collection invites us to reflect on the history of feminism and take a hard look at where it stands today. Selected essays include "Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation," "The Lure of the Mannish Lesbian," "Eccentric Subjects," "Habit Changes," "The Intractability of Desire," and the unpublished article "Figures of Resistance." An introduction from feminist film scholar Patricia White provides an overview of the development of de Lauretis's thought and of feminist theory over past decades.

Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Thinking Feminist by Patricia White Part I: Representations 1. Rethinking Women's Cinema (1985) 2. Sexual Indifference and Lesbian Representation (1988) 3. When Lesbians Were Not Women (2002) Part II: Readings 4. The Lure of the Mannish Lesbian (1991) 5. "Letter to an Unknown Woman" (1999) 6. Public and Private Fantasies in David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly (1999) Part III: Epistemologies 7. Eccentric Subjects (1990) 8. Upping the Anti: SUB? (1990) 9. Habit Changes (1994) 10. "Subjectivity, Feminist Politics, and the Intractability of Desire" (2002) 11. "Figures of Resistance" (2005) Notes Index

About the Author :
Teresa de Lauretis is a professor of the history of consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema and other books. Patricia White, an associate professor and chair of film and media studies at Swarthmore College, is the author of Uninvited: Classical Holywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability.

Review :
"This is crucial work. What we find here is a scholar at the top of her form paying attention to her field, in its broadest contours and attempting to make sense of it at a key moment of transition. In terms of feminist writing on cinema, there is nobody else in de Lauretis's league." --B. Ruby Rich, author of Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement "De Lauretis's work is stimulating, innovative, and groundbreaking. Readers from a wide range of audiences will be grateful to have in a single volume the works of one of the most important feminist theorists working today." --Judith Mayne, Distinguished Humanities Professor, French and women's studies, Ohio State University