Feminist New Materialisms: Theories, Transversality, and Materialism

This essay provides a comprehensive exploration of Feminist New Materialisms (FNM), delving into its core concepts, theoretical underpinnings, and practical applications. The essay begins by defining FNM as an onto-epistemological and ethico-political framework that challenges traditional dichotomies and power structures. It then presents an annotated bibliography of eight key scholarly sources, each contributing unique perspectives on FNM. These sources explore themes such as posthumanist performativity, transversality, the relationship between matter and culture, and the intersection of feminism and materialism. The essay analyzes how these works contribute to the understanding of FNM, highlighting the importance of materiality, embodiment, and the agency of non-human actors. The bibliography includes works by prominent scholars like Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, and others, providing a rich and nuanced understanding of the field. The essay also examines the relevance of feminist dilemmatic theorizing and the affective turn in feminist theory. Overall, the essay offers a detailed and insightful overview of FNM, making it a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in this evolving field.

FEMINIST NEW MATERIALISMS (FNM)
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New materialisms are the onto-epistemological and ethico-political which is connected to the
decentralization of knowledge production in pre-established dichotomies. It transverses power
relations which in turn organizes various life forms. The broader engagement between feminist’s
ethics, methodologies and politics in the feminist theory provides a phenomenological event and
subjective state. In the current essay, details regarding feminist new materialism (FNM) concept
along with some relevant theories will be explored. Through depiction of an annotated
bibliography a detailed theoretical construct related to transversality in new materialism,
Feminism and materialism (RLE feminist theory) and dilemmatic theorizing has been discussed.
There are 8 bibliographic materials that have been included for the purpose of this study and
which makes significant contribution to it as given below.
1. Barad, K. 2003, 'Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter
Comes to Matter', Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 28, no. 3, pp.
801-31.
Language has been overpowered. Every single thing no matter what has been transitioned into
something associated with cultural representation and linguistic matters. Critical scholars who
deal with feminist studies, cultural and science studies are those who actually fight to deal with
the heftiness of the world. On one side there is a reclaimed desire to recognize matters that are
associated with hatred. On the other side, a group who are exiled from the comforting zone of
culture and history hope to find their own finitude rather than unselfishly advocate on the
subaltern’s behalf.
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The usefulness of the article is in its understanding relevance of new materialism according to
the feminists theory.
2. van der Tuin, I. 2011, '‘New feminist materialisms’', Women's Studies International
Forum, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 271-7.
In the latter half of 1990’s, Braidotti and DeLanda propounded two terms, “neomaterialism” and
“materialism”. This article throws light on the 3 ways in which these 2 terms could be called
“transversal”. New materialism focuses on “naturecultures”, nomenclatured by Harraway rather
than privileging culture. It negates the dominance on mankind by the dualist’s thoughts and
explores a new monist perspective of mankind by giving more attention to matter. The
philosophies propounded by Leibniz and Spinoza get spurred through the hands of New
Materialism that show that mankind has already been a part of nature that is necessarily cultured.
It also says how matter is related to mind. New materialism opposes the dualist traditions that
comprises of a bit of both modern and post-modern ideas.
This bibliographic content provides a theoretical base to the development of the study. It
provides basic definitions and concepts, guiding through the understanding of disciplinary
approach as utilized in creation or dissemination of scientific knowledge across different
disciplines in art. Its contribution to the essay is reflected in a manner in which materialism
contributes to mankind.
3. Dolphijn, R. and Tuin, I.V.D., 2012. New materialism: Interviews & cartographies. Open
Humanities Press.
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This book is the very first monograph on “New materialism”, a trending concept of the 21st
century that left its mark in subjects like philosophy, feminism, cultural theories, arts and
science. The first part contains interviews with eminent scholars of new materialism like Rosi
Braidotti, Karen Barad, Manuel De Landa and Quentin Meillassaoux. The second part places the
new materialistic practices in contemporary thoughts by separating its traversal methodology, its
sexual differing and by progressing the political and ethical consequences of new materialism.
This bibliographic content provides enormous inputs into the first philosophies. It provides
description and details regarding methodological adoption. It allows in formation of the theme of
the essay.
4. Van der Tuin, I. and Dolphijn, R., 2010. The transversality of new materialism. Women:
a cultural review, 21(2), pp.153-171.
In the latter half of 1990’s, Braidotti and DeLanda propounded two terms, “neomaterialism” and
“materialism”. This article throws light on the 3 ways in which these 2 terms could be called
“transversal”. New materialism focuses on “naturecultures”, nomenclatured by Harraway rather
than privileging culture. It negates the dominance on mankind by the dualist’s thoughts and
explores a new monist perspective of mankind by giving more attention to matter. The
philosophies propounded by Leibniz and Spinoza get spurred through the hands of New
Materialism that show that mankind has already been a part of nature that is necessarily cultured.
It also says how matter is related to mind. New materialism opposes the dualist traditions that
comprises of a bit of both modern and post-modern ideas.
This bibliography provides description related to perspective of the new matter. It reveals that
mankind being a part of the cultured nature. It provides an opposing view of the dualist tradition,
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allowing new learners to develop a perspective regarding it. It provides a view of the proposed
topic of the essay.
5. Kuhn, A. and Wolpe, A., 2013. Feminism and materialism (RLE feminist theory): Women
and modes of production. Routledge.
These are original essays that are focused towards explaining women’s historical and social
situation in a coherent manner. It analyses the relationship of women to production-reproduction
modes in a systematic approach which is made more robust within the framework of
materialism. Each essay starts with a small editorial introduction that deals with the issues and
perspectives for both social sciences and women’s movements that have come into the forefront
in the recent years. The prominent social issues like patriarchy and labor both paid and unpaid
get special attention in these articles. The two most dominating themes like the labor process and
family recommends that in order to understand the situation of women it is necessary to first
analyze the production-reproduction structures.
This bibliographic content provides a detailed insight into women’s situation. The material
provides a detailed theoretical outlook on feminism and materialism (RLE feminist theory). The
material highlights the importance of paid labor and unpaid labor providing attention to labor
processes. It contributes to the essay by providing a theory.
6. Harris, K.L., 2015. Feminist dilemmatic theorizing: New materialism in communication
studies. Communication Theory, 26(2), pp.150-170.
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The scholars of feminist communication adopt ostensibly disproportionate ideas to steer the
tensions prevailing among discourse, materiality, history and agency. In my opinion, giving
weightage to these “contradictions” alone cannot guarantee research for feminist
communications which I label as a feminist dilemma. The feminists employ representative and
constitutive communications because they focus on transforming the world. Rather than calling
these approaches paradoxical I reread the present scholarships for inactive feminist materialisms.
For example, instances like sexual violence the feminist communication develops an entire new
approach to the communication forces in which discourse in not that robust. Accordingly, it is
recommended communication theorist to deal on the present feminist scholarships so as to meet
the social construction critiques to progress the material turn.
The above bibliographic content provides its unique contribution to the essay by providing a
view on the feminist dilemmatic theorizing. It is regarded as a new term in the communicative
discourse. It is one of the preferred social constructions in the material turn. Its contribution is
also in providing theoretical construct to the essay.
7. Pedwell, C. and Whitehead, A., 2012. Affecting feminism: Questions of feeling in
feminist theory. Feminist Theory, 13(2), pp.115-129.
This issue deals with the relationship between the “affective turn” and feminism. The authors
here pose critical questions regarding women engagement with feelings and emotions through a
series of analysis. They ask whether it will be fruitful to put both the important theories of affect
and feminism together or whether it will be a risky venture, for example whether there is risk of
depoliticization or over privileging an individual. They also ask whether feminism can
conceptualize affect and what particular insights can they actually bring in. The authors here
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consider how exactly can be the complex implications of the feminist theories and its turn-to-
effect theories can be understood so as to examine the potentialities of social, political and
theoretical transformation.
The above bibliographic content provides insights related to the relationship between feminism
and affective turn. It provides an extension of the topic. It provides more insights into the FNM
concept.
8. Howie, G., 2010. Between feminism and materialism: a question of method. Springer.
It is a series which is focused on remodeling the present, past and future trajectories of feminism.
Feminist theories has been projected for one-fourth of the century as ascending waves which
represented generational divides, political differences as well as different goal orientation. The
never-ending waves connote consistent movements that indicate a single trajectory with a
progressive teleology. As such, it limits where feminism stands today and how it emerged by
simplifying the philosophical and political diversity that have been a part and parcel of feminism
all throughout. It restricts the way in which we frame and understand new work.
The above bibliographic content provides insights related to feminism and materialism. The
contribution of the above content is aimed at providing a description regarding the methodology.
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References
Barad, K 2003, 'Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understandingof How Matter Comes to
Matter', Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 801-31.
Dolphijn, R. and Tuin, I.V.D., 2012. New materialism: Interviews & cartographies. Open
Humanities Press.
Harris, K.L., 2015. Feminist dilemmatic theorizing: New materialism in communication
studies. Communication Theory, 26(2), pp.150-170.
Howie, G., 2010. Between feminism and materialism: a question of method. Springer.
Kuhn, A. and Wolpe, A., 2013. Feminism and materialism (RLE feminist theory): Women and
modes of production. Routledge.
Pedwell, C. and Whitehead, A., 2012. Affecting feminism: Questions of feeling in feminist
theory. Feminist Theory, 13(2), pp.115-129.
van der Tuin, I. 2011, '‘New feminist materialisms’', Women's Studies International Forum, vol.
34, no. 4, pp. 271-7.
Van der Tuin, I. and Dolphijn, R., 2010. The transversality of new materialism. Women: a
cultural review, 21(2), pp.153-171.
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