Epistemological Challenges in Feminist Research: Towards an Embodied Affect Theory

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the feminist epistemological challenge of de-binarizing Western thought by questioning the Cartesian dualism on which it is based. I link different approaches to the subject and power from feminist theory and contemporary social theory, in order to rethink the processes of materialization of subjects within the framework of power relations that shape the world and, therefore, our modes of existence. I take up a number of proposals from key authors in feminist thought who contribute elements to explore situated material, subjective and affective processes, with the purpose of constructing an embodied theory of the subject and affect, which will address the issue of matter and the body, language, affect, discourse and meaning in the context of the destabilization of the body/ mind and nature/culture dualisms, inevitably linked to the constitutive oppositions between sex/gender and materiality/meaning.