ABSTRACT
In Chapter 3 I proposed an understanding of the relations between feminism and postmodernism, feminism and utopianism, that is transgressive of the dualist position of either/or. The ‘problem’ of difference was identified as the central problematic with which contemporary feminism is preoccupied. The proposed response to this problem was similarly transgressive: the approach advocated was one that rejected the conventional frameworks on which thought (and theory) are structured. It was transgressive of dualist thought and binary oppositional thought and was identified as utopian in the sense outlined in earlier chapters-it created a new conceptual space and had a transformative function: it provoked a paradigm shift in consciousness. The utopianism of feminism (thus understood) is, I have suggested, its redeeming feature. A utopianism of this kind has the potential to transform feminism from a politics of exclusion to a politics that is open to difference.
