Description: In an innovative exploration of the complex relations between women and the modern, Felski challenges conventional male-centered theories of modernity and calls into question feminist perspectives that have demonized the modern as inherently patriarchal, or else assumed a simple opposition between men's and women's experiences of the modern world.
Brief description: Rita Felski is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
Review Quotes: Felski immerses herself in the messy ambiguities, symbioses, and contradictions of the modern to a degree that is rare and bravely ambitious. The book addresses an abundance of topics--fin de siècle sociological and psychoanalytic theory, consumer behavior, the aesthetics of decadence and sexual perversion, the rhetoric of first-wave feminism. While never ungenerous, Felski dismantles some recent favored assumptions. Reading her book, one feels that we are profligate with the words 'subversive, ' 'transgressive, ' and 'resisting' as terms of approbation. Felski recognizes that assessing the degree and kind of resistance requires deep knowledge of the context in which it occurs.--Gail McDonald "Lingua Franca"