The Embodiment of the Subject: Feminism and the Communitarian Critique of Liberalism

Communitarian critiques of liberalism and feminist critiques of traditional political theory have much in common, most notably the rejection of the rational, disembodied subject of the liberal tradition. Despite the similarities of the two critiques, however, feminist and communitarian attempts to embody the subject lead them in significantly different directions. This study argues that one aspect of the feminist critique of the subject, the attempt to articulate the discursive subject, offers the most promising alternative to the communitarian/liberalism debate that has polarized both political theory and feminist theory.