Criticism of the canon from a feminist perspective has always accompanied the canon, often even preceding it in parts: thinkers such as Margaret Cavendish, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Simone de Beauvoir all had a critical view on the canon, both in terms of the historical exclusion of women from the philosophical tradition and the negative characterization of women or the feminine in this tradition. Therefore, the critique regarding the lack of plurality, the lack of inclusion of women in the canon, is both factual and conceptual.
The podcast series “100 Years of Critiquing the Canon” pursues a research program with regard to the lasting documentation of existing canon criticism, as well as the exploration of contemporary perspectives and approaches to the canon, and an outlook on realities of other philosophical practices with regard to the canon. The podcast series aims to make visible(er) the broad canon research that has been done in philosophy to date and to open it up for contemporary research and debates. It will focus both on current research about the canon and on forgotten criticisms of the canon made by women philosophers far in the past. Central questions of the series are: What is the classical philosophical canon? Why does it continue to perpetuate itself despite all the critical voices and research? Why is Philosophy more persistent than other disciplines in ignoring non-male voices and non-Western traditions?
In each episode, we will approach these questions with a different interviewee from their respective perspective. Along a specifically designed research program, we will discuss, among other things: Strategies of duration; dynamics of cultural memory and exclusion mechanisms; emergence of “classics” within a discipline; the philosophical criticism of the canon of the second women’s movement, its predecessors and later critiques; ways of dealing with the canon (for example, the feminist re-interpretation of the canon, its modification and supplementation, or the “’canceling’ of the canon”), possible prospects (cyber/sci-fi feminism), and strategies for lasting change.
The podcast series was launched in spring 2023 with a public evening event in Berlin (at diffrakt) with Nadja Germann und Catherine Newmark.
