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- Sporre, Karin
(author)
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Först när vi får ansikten: Ett flerkulturellt samtal om feminism, etik och teologi.
- 1999
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this thesis in ethics I study and analyze feminist theological texts from 1988–1997 by Katie G. Cannon, Chung Hyun Kyung and Mary C. Grey. A culturally diverse conversation is constructed, in which womanist issues, Asian women’s concerns, and feminist critique of the Western European philosophical and theological traditions are brought into dialogue with a Swedish context. The theories used are drawn also from the works by Donna J. Haraway, Iris M. Young and Seyla Benhabib. My analysis centers around four concepts: oppression, moral agency, ethical knowledge and vision. In addition to explicating the conceptual understanding of and theories behind these four concepts, my analysis focuses concretely on what oppression is, who the actual moral agents are, and what ethical knowledge and vision are deemed necessary for them to resist their oppression according to the texts of Cannon, Chung and Grey. ”Women’s experiences” and ”epistemological privilege,” two crucial concepts within feminist theory, are also reviewed, discussed, and conceptually developed. The overall feminist discussion in the thesis is directed towards what constitutes a multiculturally open feminism. However manifested in different forms, Cannon, Chung and Grey agree that oppression is exerted through unequal relationships – personally, societally, internationally, and ecologically. Resisting oppression in various ways gives dignity back to those oppressed and challenges the inequalities of power. The authors also describe how oppression limits the freedom of acting for those subordinated in unequal relationships. Furthermore, differences like sex/gender, race or class can be used in detracting value and withholding of rights. Vision and values, different from those confirming status quo, are crucial to resist oppression. In concluding the thesis I discuss (among others) how the studied concepts reflect historic and cultural differences but also express commonalities across cultural boundaries, as well as how justice can be seen as processes of restoration.
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