Title: The Divergence of Interpretation: Western Feminism between Racial and Gender Discourses

Abstract:There is a divergence of interpretation since the second wave of the western feminism: the divergence between “the racial discourse” and “the gender discourse”. Comparing the interpretations made by bell hooks and Judith Butler to the same literary texts, we can see vividly this divergence. In deeper analysis, this is the divergence between “the social politics” and “the personal politics”. Before the 2008 economic crisis, “the personal” has always overshadowed “the social”. However, the more “personal” side of interpretation has gradually shown two main problems: west-centrism and banality and discursive exhaustion. Today such a divergence still exists, though in somewhat different discourses.

Keywords: western feminism, race, gender, divergence

Author: Wen Pan, Associate Professor, the Teaching and Research Department of Sociology and Cultural Studies, School of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the C. P. C., Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.