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Her voices: hermeneutics of the feminine12
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THE SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL Vol. 37/No. 1/2000
years of age. Similarly, at least one idea proffered relating to congressional restructuring– that of allowing the Council of War to threaten war–may hasten hostilities between the United States and another country, hence promulgation of less-than-formal declarations of war. Finally, the author’s criticism of the 1973 War Powers Act is shortsighted, given that there is no concomitant attempt to trace precursors to it which were debated in Congress. Still, Hallett’s study provides a powerful reminder of what can occur when Congress, the President, and the public ignore or misinterpret the literal language of the Constitution: American forces become pawns of politics, people die, and the nation gets involved in foreign crises before the purposes of such missions are clear. The events of early 1999 in Kosovo and Iraq seem to show that the U.S. government isn’t following constitutional or ethical precepts of war, nor is the public holding elected officeholders accountable. To the extent that The Lost Art of Declaring War can reorient our attention to the historical, legal, and policy reasons for properly initiating war, it may better prepare the United States for peace in the next century. Her Voices: Hermeneutics of the Feminine Edited by Fabio B. Dasilva and Mathew Kanjirathinkal Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996, 184 pages Reviewed by: Raghu N. Singh, Texas A&M University–Commerce Hermeneutics is a theory or philosophy (not necessarily a methodology) for the interpretation and evaluation of meanings people give to written texts or records. The hermeneutic approach originated in disciplines which study texts, particularly theology. Its usefulness is being increasingly recognized in contemporary sociology and this book breaks new ground in providing a hermeneutic analysis of gender issues. The editors and authors of the ten articles in this reader come from a number of disciplines and have diverse intellectual backgrounds. This enriches the book’s overall outlook for exploring “some key issues in recent times.” The editors clarify in the Preface the general themes of subordination, marginalization, and outright suppression of female voices by the linguistic, legal, psychological, philosophical, and other symbolic structures of a patriarchal society. This process is examined in the reader through the intriguing formulations of Diana Rivers, Luce Irigary, Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, George Bartaille, Hannah Arendt, Rosa Luxumberg, and Karl Marx. One of the major strengths of this book is a well written introduction. The book develops approaches toward a feminist theory using the traditional subject-object encounter in its various manifestations of male-female relationships. Through three models, they explore the various modes of female existence and the forms of female culture within each. Finally, a new model that negates the validity of the subject-object dichotomy and opens the door to gender equality is proposed. Hermeneutic analysis is used for the story of Little Red Riding Hood, a journalistic account of a sexual harassment case involving a college professor and one of his female students, and an interview transcript of a conversation among the researcher and a spouse and spouse focusing on accounts of rape on a Greek island during World War II. The author demonstrates that accounts of rape are shaped by power relations; the voices of
Book Reviews
155
those individuals who lack the power to shape the discourse are either muted or distorted to fit the descriptions that are supportive of existing power structures. In the second essay on “No Man’s Land,” the author analyzes Diana Rivers’ feminist utopian novels. The third essay explores the plight of postmenopausal women through the analytical strategies provided by Luce Irigary. Another essay deals with “tactical sociality” and criticizes the Freudian concepts of the phallic state as the origin of the superego, and concludes that patriarchal morality is a needles superstructure. An essay titled “Queering the Phallus” addresses the difficulty of separating the imagery of the penis from the symbol of the phallus. It is concluded that as long as the phallus enjoys the privileged position that it currently occupies, a woman’s identity will always be a negative one and civilization will continue to silence her voice. The following essay, titled “Women in Dark Times,” has a Jewish refugee in the United States telling stories of Jewish women. Trying to revisit Marx, the author traces the changing modalities of conceptualizing gender roles and the relationship between the sexes through historical changes in the means of production. A case is made using Marxist analysis of sexuality and pornography in “late capitalism.” Finally, an exploring George Bartaille’s characterization of pornography agrees with Andrea Dworkin’s reading that there is a complicity between patriarchy and avant-garde writing. The reviewer used this book as a supplementary text for two graduate seminars on sociology of marriage and family. The contents proved provocative in generating classroom debates on the feminist perspective. The book provided students with meaningful contexts for applying sociological concepts and ideas related to male-female relationships. Most of my graduate students found the essays in this reader to be stimulating and exciting. Although it took time for a few of them to grasp the interpretative approach of hermeneutical sociology, most started to appreciate intercultural comparisons of meanings implied in feminist texts. A few said that it was a challenge to finally start making sense out of a seemingly complex set of presentations. What impressed them most was a realization that the inequality of women has been so deep rooted, including in the historical and literary manuscripts. The reader helped sociology students realize that it is essential to explore multiple (including nontraditional) sources of ideas on critical issues.
The Future of Ethnicity, Race, and Nationality by Walter L. Wallace Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997, 199 pages
Reviewed by: Amory Starr, Colorado State University Walter Wallace’s book is laudable for its attempt to make a truly world-historical analysis of race, ethnicity, nation, and their interrelationships. He tracks the dispersion of human beings across the world along with their reconvergence and increasing contact. His approach is to theorize on the nature of this contact and resulting competition, cooperation, and consolidation. The purpose is to draw out a plan for “species-survival” in the face
THE SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL Vol. 37/No. 1/2000
years of age. Similarly, at least one idea proffered relating to congressional restructuring– that of allowing the Council of War to threaten war–may hasten hostilities between the United States and another country, hence promulgation of less-than-formal declarations of war. Finally, the author’s criticism of the 1973 War Powers Act is shortsighted, given that there is no concomitant attempt to trace precursors to it which were debated in Congress. Still, Hallett’s study provides a powerful reminder of what can occur when Congress, the President, and the public ignore or misinterpret the literal language of the Constitution: American forces become pawns of politics, people die, and the nation gets involved in foreign crises before the purposes of such missions are clear. The events of early 1999 in Kosovo and Iraq seem to show that the U.S. government isn’t following constitutional or ethical precepts of war, nor is the public holding elected officeholders accountable. To the extent that The Lost Art of Declaring War can reorient our attention to the historical, legal, and policy reasons for properly initiating war, it may better prepare the United States for peace in the next century. Her Voices: Hermeneutics of the Feminine Edited by Fabio B. Dasilva and Mathew Kanjirathinkal Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996, 184 pages Reviewed by: Raghu N. Singh, Texas A&M University–Commerce Hermeneutics is a theory or philosophy (not necessarily a methodology) for the interpretation and evaluation of meanings people give to written texts or records. The hermeneutic approach originated in disciplines which study texts, particularly theology. Its usefulness is being increasingly recognized in contemporary sociology and this book breaks new ground in providing a hermeneutic analysis of gender issues. The editors and authors of the ten articles in this reader come from a number of disciplines and have diverse intellectual backgrounds. This enriches the book’s overall outlook for exploring “some key issues in recent times.” The editors clarify in the Preface the general themes of subordination, marginalization, and outright suppression of female voices by the linguistic, legal, psychological, philosophical, and other symbolic structures of a patriarchal society. This process is examined in the reader through the intriguing formulations of Diana Rivers, Luce Irigary, Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, George Bartaille, Hannah Arendt, Rosa Luxumberg, and Karl Marx. One of the major strengths of this book is a well written introduction. The book develops approaches toward a feminist theory using the traditional subject-object encounter in its various manifestations of male-female relationships. Through three models, they explore the various modes of female existence and the forms of female culture within each. Finally, a new model that negates the validity of the subject-object dichotomy and opens the door to gender equality is proposed. Hermeneutic analysis is used for the story of Little Red Riding Hood, a journalistic account of a sexual harassment case involving a college professor and one of his female students, and an interview transcript of a conversation among the researcher and a spouse and spouse focusing on accounts of rape on a Greek island during World War II. The author demonstrates that accounts of rape are shaped by power relations; the voices of
Book Reviews
155
those individuals who lack the power to shape the discourse are either muted or distorted to fit the descriptions that are supportive of existing power structures. In the second essay on “No Man’s Land,” the author analyzes Diana Rivers’ feminist utopian novels. The third essay explores the plight of postmenopausal women through the analytical strategies provided by Luce Irigary. Another essay deals with “tactical sociality” and criticizes the Freudian concepts of the phallic state as the origin of the superego, and concludes that patriarchal morality is a needles superstructure. An essay titled “Queering the Phallus” addresses the difficulty of separating the imagery of the penis from the symbol of the phallus. It is concluded that as long as the phallus enjoys the privileged position that it currently occupies, a woman’s identity will always be a negative one and civilization will continue to silence her voice. The following essay, titled “Women in Dark Times,” has a Jewish refugee in the United States telling stories of Jewish women. Trying to revisit Marx, the author traces the changing modalities of conceptualizing gender roles and the relationship between the sexes through historical changes in the means of production. A case is made using Marxist analysis of sexuality and pornography in “late capitalism.” Finally, an exploring George Bartaille’s characterization of pornography agrees with Andrea Dworkin’s reading that there is a complicity between patriarchy and avant-garde writing. The reviewer used this book as a supplementary text for two graduate seminars on sociology of marriage and family. The contents proved provocative in generating classroom debates on the feminist perspective. The book provided students with meaningful contexts for applying sociological concepts and ideas related to male-female relationships. Most of my graduate students found the essays in this reader to be stimulating and exciting. Although it took time for a few of them to grasp the interpretative approach of hermeneutical sociology, most started to appreciate intercultural comparisons of meanings implied in feminist texts. A few said that it was a challenge to finally start making sense out of a seemingly complex set of presentations. What impressed them most was a realization that the inequality of women has been so deep rooted, including in the historical and literary manuscripts. The reader helped sociology students realize that it is essential to explore multiple (including nontraditional) sources of ideas on critical issues.
The Future of Ethnicity, Race, and Nationality by Walter L. Wallace Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997, 199 pages
Reviewed by: Amory Starr, Colorado State University Walter Wallace’s book is laudable for its attempt to make a truly world-historical analysis of race, ethnicity, nation, and their interrelationships. He tracks the dispersion of human beings across the world along with their reconvergence and increasing contact. His approach is to theorize on the nature of this contact and resulting competition, cooperation, and consolidation. The purpose is to draw out a plan for “species-survival” in the face