Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Reclaiming Emma Goldman to Understand the Travails of Meta-Modernity
Stathis-Raphael Pasyanos, LL.M. (Cantab.)
ABSTRACT:
This essay aims at the revival of discourse concerning the work of Emma Goldman (1869-1940), a Russianborn American anarchist and feminist philosopher. In her opus magnum, Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), Goldman outlines her basic observations and exegeses for the social pathology she witnesses back in her day. Her insightful commentary and analysis on a variety of different topics and her dynamic style of writing makes her take on a plethora of ever-contemporary matters interesting and topical. Setting her anarchist pedigree and predispositions aside, the essay focusses mainly on her discussion of four major domains that define the human living experience still today: the economy and one’s position therein, the notion of patriotism and the class-distinctions it serves to veil, the role of exogenous morality and the shortcomings of puritanism as well as -and maybe foremostly- the position of women in society today and the state of female emancipation. Given how important all of these domains are in the modern quest to reassess the human situation and the notion of society in the post-modern era, identifying the similarities between Goldman’s account and today’s challenges as well as offering some suggestions to answer the question of how humanity has allowed an essential stalemate in its own progression and amelioration, is really edifying. In each domain discussed, verified statistics and factual evidence is provided in order to prove the topicality of Goldman’s assertions in a world seemingly far different from the one she left behind, on the twilight of the interwar period.
keywords: feminism, patriotism, morality, female emancipation, socioeconomic progress