A Critique Of Angela Mcrobbie’s Post-feminism Theory

Angela McRobbie is a British cultural theorist, commentator and feminist, whoseresearches initiate feminist cultural studies in the Birmingham School. She is the mostauthoritative spokeswoman in the field of feminist cultural studies. Therefore, hertheories and ideas deserve comprehensive and profound studies. Currently, domesticand abroad researches on McRobbie focus on her theoretical aspects of youthsubcultures; however, studies of her post-feminist research are restricted to briefintroductions. Thus, there is lack of systematic research and criticism. The thesis justmakes up the deficiency in the academia, and thus it not only makes people have aricher understanding of both McRobbie’s theories and Birmingham School femalecultural studies, but also benefits people for a more comprehensive and more profoundunderstanding of post-feminism theory in the intellectual history. Therefore, herpost-feminism theory will get a more fair review from the perspective of its historicalstatus.Through close reading McRobbie’s monographs and individual papers, this thesissummarizes her post-feminism theory, while simultaneously providing a criticalthinking of her theory systematically. The thesis explores the academic contributions ofher post-feminism theory in the field of cultural studies and women’s studies. The mainfeature of McRobbie’s researches is that she always integrated women’s issues withcultural studies. In order to better evaluate her post-feminist theory, the thesis dividesitself into five parts. The first part is the introduction, consisting of a brief introductionof McRobbie and her works, literature review, and the significance of this research.The second part aims at carrying out a framework of the post-feminism theory. Thedeveloping course of post-feminism, its definition both in academia and McRobbie’sworks will be discussed here. The third part is the most important part of this thesiswhich discusses McRobbie’s post-feminism theory and makes comments on it. Fromthree aspects, this part evaluates her post-feminism theory systematically andcomprehensively. The fourth part uplifts the study by a cross-cultural study from theperspective of comparative literature. This part expounds comprehensively the value and limitations of post-feminist theory by focusing on the enlightening significance ofMcRobbie’s post-feminism theory for the development of contemporary domesticfeminism. The fifth part is the conclusion, in which the major contents and threads ofthe thesis are given due consideration. Through closely reading McRobbie’s AngelaMcRobbie’s serial works and papers about post-feminism theory and cultural studies,this thesis aims to combing her post-feminism theory systematically and making anin-depth study to criticize its development and continuity. Through comprehensivelystudying, we can find that McRobbie’s post-feminism theory has many faults anddefects. Therefore, we should treat McRobbie’s post-feminism theory dialectically.