Scream from the Shadows: The Women’s Liberation Movement in Japan
ISBN: 9780816680122
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Minnesota Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Feminism -- Japan; Women -- Japan; Women -- Japan -- Social conditions;

More than forty years ago a womenOCOs liberation movement called uman ribu was born in Japan amid conditions of radicalism, violence, and imperialist aggression. Setsu ShigematsuOCOs book is the first to present a sustained history of uman ribu OCOs formation, its political philosophy, and its contributions to feminist politics across and beyond Japan. Through an in-depth analysis of uman ribu, Shigematsu furthers our understanding of JapanOCOs gender-based modernity and imperialism and expands our perspective on transnational liberation and feminist movements worldwide. In Scream from the Shadows, Shigematsu engages with political philosophy while also contextualizing the movement in relation to the Japanese left and New Left as well as the antiOCoVietnam War and radical student movements. She examines the controversial figure Tanaka Mitsu, uman ribu OCOs most influential activist, and the movementOCOs internal dynamics. Shigematsu highlights uman ribu OCOs distinctive approach to the relationship of womenOCoand womenOCOs liberationOCoto violence: specifically, the movementOCOs embrace of violent women who were often at the margins of society and its recognition of womenOCOs complicity in violence against other women. Scream from the Shadows provides a powerful case study of a complex and contradictory movement with a radical vision of womenOCOs liberation. It offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the blind spots within our contemporary and dominant views of feminism across their liberal, marxist, radical, Euro-American, postcolonial, and racial boundaries.


hidden image for function call