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Femicide, Gender and Violence pp 9–32Cite as

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Discourse, Biopower, and Identity Politics Critique

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Abstract

This chapter sets the theoretical framework of the book: It discusses the notion of discourse and introduces my reading of the conceptual category of ‘gender’ as a device of biopolitics that concurs to foreground the cultural dimension of human identity. I suggest interrogating voices at the margin of mainstream public sphere in order to question emancipatory discourses that have for long time entered institutions, academia, and popular culture and that might contribute to generate social injustices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this regard I find interesting the critique advanced by Noam Chomsky on the infiltration of identity politics in academia and the consequent postmodernist turn resulting into a proliferation of sectorial and biased studies on different types of identities disconnected from general theories. Chomsky develops this thesis in the following videoclip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzrHwDOlTt8

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    Daniela Bandelli

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Bandelli, D. (2017). Discourse, Biopower, and Identity Politics Critique. In: Femicide, Gender and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47785-5_2

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