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Zeeb Rd AnnArbor, MI48106 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: THE METAPHYSICS OF GENDER AND DEATH A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THEDEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PIllLOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE AUGUST 1994 By Kathleen o. Kane Dissertation Committee: Neal Milner, Chairperson Phyllis Turnbull Kathy Ferguson Michael Shapiro Murray Turnbull © Copyright 1994 by Kathleen O. Kane iii For one who precedes To one who follows To the work one has done And the work one will do For Kathe To Leah iv Acknowledgements To my committee exemplary teachers all, who taught me the stuff of the intellect and formed my imaginary, even during those times when they didn't know what to do with me. Neal Milner: my chairperson, a man of the theatre, playwright and comedian extraordinaire; Phyllis Turnbull, a crusty old gal, the exemplar "she who must be obeyed" (whom we all wish to become) and formidable watcher-thinker of things, land- and bird-watcher extraordinaire; Kathy Ferguson, our "first feminist," serious, undismissible critiquer and belly-Iaugher extraordinaire; Mike Shapiro, the "Walter Benjamin" of the imaginary and of the intellect, metaphor-maker extraordinaire; and Murray Turnbull (named as "outside-member"), who sat the center of this project, seer of the astonishing artist extraordinaire. These members read this work "with pleasure"; that is, they suspended the fear of taking pleasure in reading a work about nauseating violence. That generosity (not towards me, or my writing, but towards the topic itself) had a profound effect on my ability to continue on. And finally, for contributing at a critical moment on this project that just isn't his sort of thing, Peter Manicas, lively intelligence and serious good-humor, proxy extraordinaire. To those who taught me how to teach: the many, many students from this place, who have taught me how to listen, and to facilitate learning in others who wish to understand our human predicament v ------ -_._----- In terms of gender and race. The process of learning to teach here comes from nowhere if not from these students; learning to teach here taught me my place here, and in the wide world. To Nahua J. K. Fuji, a name that re-presents the persona of our study­ and-writing-group that focused on how race and gender plays about in this place that we live. We are Nahua Patrinos, Julie Wuthnow, myself, and Louise Fuji. Without this entity, I would not have found my voice for this project. Absolutely without a doubt. Others in the department whose very presence made academic life humane: Mehmed Ali, Carolyn Di Palma, Evelyn Ho, Cindy Kobayashi, Gerry Kosasa-Terry, Masa Kato, Vivian Luning, Carole Moon, John Shim, Allison Yap--and always and forever, dear Malati and Sisir Das. The Women's Studies Program, most especially Sharon Shimamoto and Meda Chesney-Lind, and all the women who keep the home lights burning for all who come to "the safe place" and find that it is also "where the wild things are." And at The Center for Teaching Excellence: Carole Muraoka, Billie Ikeda, Mark Nakamura, Ruth Streveler, and the ever-present support of Virgie Chattergy, facilitated the final writing stage. vi Bibiana Potter, who tried her level best to get me speaking German, and for an occasional translation of a quote, and for always being able to reflective bravely upon both Germany and America. I knew from the start that I would not be able to begin such a project without "walking the territory," literally--or, as it turns out, spacially. My travels in Europe involved the support and generosity of many, many folks, on both sides of the then-standing wall: In Germany: Above all, the Family Mitzlaff--Elke, Stefan and Jo Marie--for their ever-generous, and trusting friendship, and for providing me with a safe and warm haven throughout a terrifying pilgrimage. Also, Claudia Schoppmann, Elaine Holliman, Rudiger Lautmann, Hans-Georg Stumke, Ingrid Flindell (Kathe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin), Ulli Jensen (Neuengamme), and Ruth Elias from Israel. In Austria: Above all Andreas Maislinger; without the generosity of his time and support, it is impossible to judge what the outcome of my journeys would have been. Also, Andrea Komlosy, Hannas Hofbauer, Barbara Neuwier and Sylvia Dreudl (Weiner Frauenverlag), John Bunzl, Karen Berger, Gudrun Hauer, Kurt Krickler (Aidshilfe Wien), Manfred Fuchs, Elizabeth Klamper (Altes Rathaus), Margit Maximilian (Republikanischer), Thomas Stem, and Boris Marff. vii In Hungary: Ilona Benoschofsky, (Director of the Jewish Museum In Budapest), Koszeg Ferenc, Peter Armbous, Doory Andrea, Peter Bokor, InCzechoslovakia: Jan and Richard Lany, Igor Tregubov from Russia. In Poland: Teresa Swiebocka, Jan Parcer, Francesyek Piper (Pantstwowe Museum at Oswiecim), Alojzy Twardecki, Zdzislaw Fraczek, Andrzej Przastek, and Edmund Benter (Stuttoff, Gdansk). At Home: How we did it, I don't know. Leah went through her (notoriously) hardest year of high school at the (notoriously) most demanding school, Julie wrote her own dissertation and defended it one day before I did mine, and I flew between self-absorbed panic and the self-absorbed pleasure of writing and "making up the world." And we all just kept doing what's called "believing in one another." I had one thing going for me that everybody should have: a good fairy, who read my stuff and kept telling me it was beautiful and brilliant. And at just the right moment, would write fairy tales, the likes of which few have seen. By her own account, this good fairy "muttered and paced, her chain-smoking giving nothing less than the appearance of a locomotive gone off its tracks," and this she did more viii than once. She assured me that my second child would be born, "not with unlimited wealth and mathematical ability"; but that I would only have to give her up for a little while, "while others poked and pried at her, but that they wouldn't hurt her." And that I would be able to "pick her back up and stuff her in a manila envelope and send her off to publishers and make a zillion dollars and then give all of it (okay some of it) to [my] nearest and dearest so they could open a bar." So far, she's been right. If all goes well, we'll call the joint "Kubo's Coffee and Fairy Tales." ix Abstract In my thesis, I work towards developing a theory of the ways in which political ideologies, with fascism as the most salient, constitute and articulate not only pure race, but pure gender. Some of the arguments that I make: that ideologies of dominance are about maleness, and about femaleness, and are therefore about impure maleness and femaleness; that in the constitution of meanings and practices, violence and eroticism are reinscribed on one another, and in cultures and ideologies of dominance; that fascist acts of extermination are important to understand in relation to women and issues of gender, because the forms of reality production that are constantly present and possible within fascism are to be seen in the relations of male to female; and, that those relations of power existed not only in Nazi Germany, at a particular time in a particular place, but are our relations of power, here and still. Finally, it strikes me that we who are women may be in a different, and more terrible, kind of trouble than we think. That terrible trouble is about the conviction that in the reinscription of violence and eroticism on one another, that which is salient In fascism ideology and practice is hidden-in-plain-sight In modern and liberal ideologies, meanings and practices. The female (its bodies, its knowledges, its eroticism, and its histories) is the site of the play of violence and eroticism with one another on a Procrustean bed of modernity. x ---- - ----~_---- ------ J II 22 l 24 II ~~"""-'~1~"'~ "IC'lfn~... tf".U"'" .', --.............t-.. dill, '.T A £~. ' ':5:4 54 '"r... i' --\' .1 '1 ':;i .~..\ 2 2 52, 51 .