11 12 2000
Jana Korb: "reflected" answer to all (Translation from Russian)


Dear women
after my last - spontaneous - letter, today I am writing again, a little slowlier...

At the beginning I would like to say that you were very right concerning the "time to get going", and now I am very happy about your interesting answers!

Furthermore I was trying to find out about Valentina, but until now I haven't found out anything. In one of her first letters she wrote that she is ill, so now I am a little worried that she hasn't been writing for so long... but you do not know anything either?
And, Irina Aktuganova, do you know whether Alla is on modem yet? And whether she is following our discussion?

And, like Irina Aristarkhova, I am sorry that i have not spelled Larisa's name right... (in german she is being spelled Larissa Lissjutkina...). And Irinas, sorry for abbreviating your surnames so funny...

Another organizational thing:
on our website (page of discussions, links to your names) we published links and informations to your works. Please write, whether any changes are neccessary...
and also please tell us, if you are not satisfied with our translations of our discussion (to be found on the english pages of the "discussions")

but now it's about time to go on with the discussion:
I start with "nationalisation" - the critique by Irina Aristarkhova.

I am agreeing very much that it is not neccessary and that one mustn't discuss this issue as it happended in our letters. Therefore I would like to add some words to explain myself and my understanding of feminism.

E.g. when I was writing about germany and Berlin, I haven't had in mind the binarity "the West versus the East/Russia" (Irina Aristarkhova is very right about the fact that our "cultures" are very close in some qualities...), but I especially wanted to explain my surroundings here, where I sit and live. (In the sense as Irina Aristarkhova wrote: "we keep forgetting about that geography and topography that is holding our computers "in place".")
When talking about germany and the west I am not intending to deepen binary differences, but on the contrary it is important for me to point out that I am speaking from a "dominant" position (western german, bourgoise student, white-skinned, healthy, heterosexual...), and that I know, see and question this position, and that I am trying to see the exclusions of Others caused by me (by my position).
(In the words of Irina Aristarkhova:) I would like to point out those differences, which don't seem to by my own ones, such as the female.
At a conference a few weeks ago I heard a Christina Parnell talking about the difference between "deconstructive" feminism and "difference" feminism, to explain the difficulties of communication between Russia and germany/Austria. But somehow she was keeping silent about her own position, maybe to stress how close she is to Russia...(?). In my opinion this wasn't good at all, she even somehow seemed arrogant - because once again the west represented the common and Russia the special. Because of such mistakes I am always trying to talk openly about my position.
Therefore, thank you a lot, Irina Aristarkhova, for your critique concerning the translations of Haraway and Butler. Yes, we are very happy that their books do exist in german!
This also is referring to the notion of "responsibility", which Irina Aktuganova wrote about. Responsibility is always closely connected to dominance and power. Women often refuse to have power. They (=we) need a positive understanding of power (e.g. along Foucault or Hannah Arendt).

Concerning the question of Irina Aristarkhova about "deconstruction" (to Andrea):

I am a big "fan" of the works of Judith Butler and, therefore, I always connect the word "deconstruction" to its feminist critique. I even liked your critiques of Derrida a lot, especially in your "Cyber-Jouissance"! And Foucault is a lot closer to me than Derrida - but also filtered by the focus of Butler.

I liked the questions by Larissa a lot:
""How one can only be a feminist in virtual space? Or only in real? And how to define oneself in another space? As a non-feminist or an anti-feminist?""

Yes, that's how we must pose the question!
But, unfortunately, some cyberfeminists seem to be "post-feminists", or even "anti-feminists", in the sense that they don't need feminism any more. But why do they call themselves cyber-FEMINISTS?

See you soon, dear discussion-partners,
(I hope that everything is understandable, as today we haven't succeeded that Andrea corrects my mistakes...)
so long, Jana


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