Learning from Experience

In Learning from Experience, Paula Moya offers an alternative to some influential philosophical assumptions about identity and experience in contemporary literary theory. Arguing that the texts and lived experiences of subordinated people are rich sources of insigh about our society, Moya presents a nuanced, universalist justification for identity-based work in ethnic studies.

This strikingly original book provides eloquent analyses of such postmodernist feminists as Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, Norma Alacron, and Chela Sandoval and counters the assimilationist proposals of minorty neoconservatives such as Shelby Steele and Richard Rodriguez. It advances realizt proposals for multicultural education and offers an understanding of the interpretive power of Chicana feminists, including Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, and Helena Maria Viramontes. Learning from Experience enlarges our concept of identity and offers new ways to situate race, gender, class, and sexual orientation in discourse and politics.