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Judith Grant, Fundamental Feminism: Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory. New York: Routledge, 1993. 226 pp.
The stated purpose of this book is to provide an alternative to hyphenated feminism through the examination of three core concepts across divergent feminist perspectives. The core concepts presented include "woman, experience, and personal politics." Grant traces the development of the core concepts starting with the women's liberation movement of the 1960s, developing through selected anglo - American marxist, socialist, radical, standpoint, and postmodern feminist perspectives. It is Grant's opinion that core concepts are of critical importance because they remain undisclosed, not discussed, and undiscovered. Grant's discussion takes us through the development of these core concepts, the search for a feminist epistemology, problems of essentialism, standpoint theories' claims of universal experience, and postmodernism. In the end Grant suggests that we abandon two of the three concepts -- women and experience -- and move toward the development of the new feminist directions -- Post - Enlightenment Humanism. An important contribution of this book is that it provides the reader with an accessible overview of the development of feminist theory and its inherent core concepts. Unfortunately, the primary reliance on anglo - American theoretical perspectives misses some of the depth and diversity provided by other European feminist perspectives. However, the author does not claim that her review of feminist theories is comprehensive.
Through Grant's explication of the development of feminist theory and practice, the importance of identifying core concepts is revealed. The core concepts "woman" and "experience" are claimed to be foundational to early feminist theory. The core concept "personal politics" is shown to work as a backdrop in which to examine woman's experiences of a gendered world. The concepts highlighted...