Feminisms
How are the identities of race, gender, class, and sexuality related? To what extent can we draw analogies between them? How does thinking about them together trouble these categories?
How do French and American feminists write across these identities and to what extent do they fail to do so? How does the form of writing manifest and contribute to that connection or lack thereof?
How do transatlantic encounters contribute to feminist thought both in France and in the United States? How does the encounter with race in American allow Beauvoir to articulate the experience of women? How does a temporary Parisian vantage point shape Davis’s thinking about American racism and its relation to other struggles?
Reading Guides for Primary Readings:
Beauvoir, selections from America Day by Day
Beauvoir, selections from The Second Sex
Davis, selections from Women, Race, and Class
Homework:
Art by Shepard Fairey