Multicultural and Postcolonial Feminisms

Mookherjee, Monica

Abstract

The growth of writings on multiculturalism and postcolonialism over the past decades has produced new approaches to feminist philosophy associated with the "third wave". The term "multiculturalism" is deeply contested, and bears different sociological and philosophical meanings. In one sense, the word is descriptive, and denotes the reality of many states in the world today, namely the fact that most countries are composed of different cultural and ethnic groups. While the concept of multiculturalism is variously interpreted, "postcolonialism" may appear still more complex. Rather than referring to the historical period after the end of colonialism, the term signals awareness of the persistence of colonial structures of thought after decolonization, or what has been termed "re-colonization". Postcolonial feminists therefore go beyond the focus in the new multicultural feminisms on inequalities arising from cultural membership, straightforwardly understood. Feminists outside cultural and literary studies have brought postcolonial insights productively into current philosophical debate.

Citation

Mookherjee, M. (2017). Multicultural and Postcolonial Feminisms. In The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy (595-606). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315758152-48

• Publication Date: Sep 19, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 6, 2023
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 595-606
• Book Title: The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy
• ISBN: 9781315758152
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315758152-48