دانلود کتاب The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic

In this book, Mary Townsend proposes that, contrary to the current scholarship on Plato's Republic, Socrates does not in fact set out to prove the weakness of women. Rather, she argues that close attention to the drama of the Republic reveals that Plato dramatizes the reluctance of men to allow women into the public sphere and offers a deeply aporetic vision of women’s nature and political position—a vision full of concern not only for the human community, but for the desires of women themselves.

Review
A rich and delightful book. Townsend shows that women, not some abstract idea, but women in full—erotic, tough, wild, and playful—are the beating heart of Plato’s Republic. Her discussion of Bendis, Artemis, and the connection between hunting and Socratic philosophizing is particularly fresh and exciting. Townsend’s wholesome understanding of political life is informed by a unique and eclectic range of readings, from Xenophon and Ovid to Vicki Hearne and Stanley Rosen. I’ll be mining the notes for years to come. (Jacob Howland, University of Tulsa)

Mary Townsend confronts Plato’s most controversial text, casting light on its unheard-of vitality and attractiveness vis-à-vis the question of woman—woman’s desire, political role, biological function, and philosophical involvement. In a study at once disarmingly deft, original, and emancipated from ideological constraints, she dares to take seriously the ‘plans for women’ laid out in the central books of the Republic. In this way, the dialogue opening with the celebration of a nocturnal Thracian goddess is exposed in its relevance to contemporary feminist thinking and, in general, to the task of holding open the question of sexuality, politics, and difference. (Claudia Baracchi, University of Milano-Bicocca)

About the Author
Mary Townsend is visiting assistant professor in the department of classical studies at Loyola University, New Orleans.