num_pages: 398
description: No concept has been more central to the emergence and evolution of identity studies than social justice. In historical and theoretical accounts it crystallizes the progressive politics that have shaped the academic study of race gender and sexuality. Yet few scholars have deliberated directly on the political agency that notions of justice confer on critical practice. In Object Lessons  Robyn Wiegman contemplates this lack of attention offering the first sustained inquiry into the political desire that galvanizes identity fields. In each chapter she examines a key debate by considering the political aspirations that shape it. Addressing Women's Studies she traces the ways that gender promises to overcome the exclusions of women. Turning to Ethnic Studies she examines the deconstruction of whiteness as an antiracist methodology. As she explores American Studies she links internationalization to the broader quest for noncomplicity in contemporary criticism. Her analysis of Queer Studies demonstrates how the commitment to antinormativity normalizes the field. In the penultimate chapter Wiegman addresses intersectionality as the most coveted theoretical approach to political resolution in all of these fields.
language: English
title: Object Lessons
publisher: Duke University Press Books