Historia contemporánea (Feb 2020)
A vueltas con el género: críticas y debates actuales en la historiografía feminista
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to invite reflection and inspire discussion on the use of gender in historical analysis. To this aim, the paper looks at three lines of criticism to gender and its use: from the insatisfaction of Joan W. Scott, a leading advocate on gender as a category of historical analysis; through the sometimes more radical proposal by postcolonial historians; to the recent questioning of the oppositional binary implicit in the concept as well as the reifying effect of its use. Through the discussion of these criticisms, I suggest the benefits of re-opening epistemological and theoretical debates, on the one hand, of the nature and operation of analytical categories in history and, on the other hand, on historical articulation of difference and power relations, together with their part in the construction of historical subjects.
