Telling Feminist Stories

In “Telling Feminist Stories,” feminist theorist Clare Hemmings is critical of the way that feminist theory consolidates the story of its development into a progress- or loss-based narrative. These two divergent narratives have similarities: They diminish the complicated history and trajectory of feminist thought, credit poststructuralism as the first approach to deconstruct the category of women, and center Anglo-American feminist thought. Hemmings turns to citational and publishing practices to name and critique how these stories are secured. Doing so raises larger questions about historical narratives. Following Gayatri Spivak, Hemmings moves away from asking what happened when, and toward interrogating how and why stories are compelled, and what kinds of subjects are produced through historical memory.