ABSTRACT
Based on the premise that feminist aesthetics shares with feminist theory a common transformatory vision that envisages a rethinking of gender and other socially constructed identities, this chapter argues that it is critical to examine the place of aesthetics in shaping ethical conceptualization for feminist discourse. The chapter begins with an investigation of the location of the aesthetic imaginary at the heart of feminist theory and the observation of a concurrent relatively slow growth of the field of feminist aesthetics. It then explores the intersection between feminist theory and aesthetics internationally and in India, situating it in the context of a larger theory/praxis cleft within women’s and gender studies. Further, it examines the relevance of an exploration of the aesthetic in the context of the potential relationship between Indian aesthetics and feminist theory. Taking into account the centrality of aesthetics in the Indian subcontinent’s metaphysical traditions, such as rasa theory and bhakti and sufi mysticism, the author argues that feminist theory can explore trans-temporal linkages with the past to arrive at alternate definitions of the ‘political’. These revised understandings of the political can help towards present and future reworkings of gender and other intersectional identities within the larger discourse of women’s and gender studies.
