Women's Work as Political Art: Weaving and Dialectical Politics in Homer, Aristophanes, and Plato - Hardcover

Lisa Pace Vetter is Assistant Professor of Government at American University.

In "Women's Work", Lisa Vetter makes a strong case for the relevance of classical political philosophy to the concerns of contemporary democratic theorists and feminists. Her suggestion that philosophical inquiry is the warp through which the diverse threads of our political fabric must be woven and rewoven rests upon a scholarly appreciation of Plato as the supreme dialectical weaver. (Jacob Howland, McFarlin Professor of Philosophy, University of Tulsa)

Lisa Vetter has written a fascinating and illuminating book on the importance of images drawn from what the ancient sources treat as the woman's work of weaving for the “manly” work of statesmanship. She concludes that an art traditionally seen as feminine provides essential insights and guideposts for thoughtful, moderate and effective citizenship. Her choice of weaving as the unifying theme is inspired and important, both for what it suggests about the meanings of that image within the texts of Homer, Aristophanes and Plato and for the ways that it enables discussion of important issues in postmodern political theory and gender studies. (Gerald Mara, Executive Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University)

Professor Vetter's absorbing analysis weaves contemporary questions into a tapestry whose background is classical wisdom gleaned from some of the most significant Greek texts and whose foreground illuminates her fresh insights about the unique place of women in philosophic dialectic and political debate. (Leslie G. Rubin, Associate Director, Society for Greek Political Thought)

A discursive approach which admits the global economy to political scrutiny is urgently needed, and the contemporary work of women, woven together across borders, spaces, cultures and generations, is a good platform upon which to engender a dialectical commonness which does not eliminate difference―an approach which is very much in the spirit of Vetter's Plato. (Political Studies Review)

First, the author presents with admirable clarity the way in which the literary-dramatic form of the dialogues has democratic implications in its dialectical invocation of a number of contesting voices. Second, and perhaps more distinctively, the author argues powerfully that such a democratically inclined dialectic can be particularly fruitful in remedying some of the inadequacies of the debate in contemporary feminist inquiry. (Paul Stern, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Ursinus College)