The Public Man and the Privatized Woman

Between the Abstract and the Concrete in Social Theorization

Abstract

This review examines the Spanish translation of Diana Kay’s El desafío del exilio. Género, clase y partido, originally published in 1987. Drawing on interviews with Chilean men and women who settled in Scotland after the 1973 coup, Kay develops a Marxist analysis that avoids three forms of reductionism, those concerning identity categories, the relationship between subject and collective, and social dimensions. The review places the book in dialogue with Marxist feminism and social reproduction theory, highlights its movement between abstract and concrete levels and its attention to affect, and underlines its relevance for Latin American social theory.