Arendt and contemporary feminisms: ontology and politics

This paper probes into some of the different moments characterizing the feminist reading of Hannah Arendt's contribution. Like in the case of many other mainstream representatives of contemporary thought-Beauvoir, Foucault or Habermas, to mention just a few-Arendt's postulates have experienced a long succession of critical engagement and disagreement. After the negative reception of Arendtian thought by Second Wave feminism, the critical judgment will be later nuanced so as to reveal the authoress's conceptual richness and philosophical potentiaher innovative conceptualizing of politics, her commitment to narrativity and judgement, and her definition of freedom in terms of natality will definitely prompt an interesting play on appropriations and re-appropriations, readings and interpretations which will eventually suggest, even to Linda Zerilli, the possibility of an distinctively Arendtian feminism. In parallel with this historical-critical reconstruction I have intertwined my own reading of the critical reception of Arendt's work in the context of feminist debates during the past years, which has turned her controversial figure into a must in contemporary feminist theory.