Overview

This collection explores how women writers in the English-speaking world transform personal intimacy into political engagement, challenging cultural oppression across genres—life writing, novels, poetry, and theatre—from the 19th century to today. Guided by the feminist slogan “the personal is political,” it bridges feminist, decolonial, ethnic, and queer studies, revealing how gender-based domination intersects with other forms of oppression. The authors highlight how these writers, across various forms of expression, imagine new modes of resistance and carve out space for social change.

Full Product Details

Author:   Valérie Baisnée-Keay ,  Corinne Bigot ,  Nicoleta Alexoae-Zagni ,  Nathalie Saudo-Welby
Publisher:   Springer International Publishing AG
Imprint:   Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN:  

9783031881916

ISBN 10:   3031881915
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   28 May 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

.- 1 Introduction (Valérie Baisnée-Keay, co-editor, Université Paris Saclay).- Part I: Personal and Political Activism.- 2 Love, Gender and Political Activism: Emma Goldman and Rose Pesotta (Maria Tamboukou, University of East London).- 3 Preserving Intimate Relationships on Nishnaabeg Territory: Decolonial Love, Women and Radical Resistance in Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Stories and Songs (Corinne Bigot, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès).- 4 “Caught in the Hinge of a Slowly Opening Door?” Colonial Legacy and Gender Inequality in Robin Hyde’s Autobiographical Writings (Valérie Baisnée-Keay, Université Paris Saclay).- 5 Glimpses into the Abyss (1906): Mary Higgs’s Personal Sociology (Nathalie Saudo-Welby, Université de Picardie Jules Verne).- Part II: Threats to Intimacy.- 6 The Intimate Politics of Empire: Child Removal and Indigenous Women’s Writing (Christina Stanciu, Virginia Commonwealth University).- 7 The Intimate Politics of Rape Narratives in the works of Arundhati Roy and Meena Kandasamy (Aurore Montheil, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès).- 8 “I wanted to see if no still meant somethin’” or Female and Cherokee Resilience in Betty by Tiffany McDaniel (Elisabeth Bouzonviller, Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne).- 9 Intimacy and Poverty in Kerry Hudson's Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns (2019) (Martina Domines, University of Zagreb).- 10 The Hospital as Scene of Childbirth in 20th and 21st-century Literature (Alice Braun, Université Paris Nanterre).- Part III: Redefining Intimate Spaces.- 11 The Black Seamstress in the Attic: Intimacy as Pleasure and Peril in Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel (Valentina Rapetti, Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy).- 12 “Heaven” as Female Heterotopia in Elizabeth Phelps’s The Gates Ajar (Mariana Teixera Marquez Pujol, Université Toulouse Capitole).- 13 Out of The Women’s Room: Marilyn French’s Iconography of Emotional Restraint (Stephanie Genty, Université Paris Saclay).- Part IV: Navigating the Paradoxes of Intimacy.- 14 Lang Leav: Navigating the Tensions of Intimacy as an “Instapoet-ess” (Floriane Joseph, Université de Lille).- 15 Lonely Hunters: Intimacy Between (Queer) Women in My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (Ana Carvalho, University of Minho, Portugal).- 16 “Meeting between the Dry Hours”: Lesbian Intimacies and Queer Timelessness in Contemporary Poetry (Héloïse Thomas, independent scholar).- 17 Narrative Intimacy and Story Sharing in Brenda Lin’s Memoir Wealth Ribbon (Nicoleta Alexoae-Zagni, Paris 8 Vincennes Saint Denis).

Reviews

Author Information

Nicoleta Alexoae-Zagni is Associate Professor at Paris 8 University—Vincennes-Saint-Denis, France. Valérie Baisnee-Keay is Associate Professor at Université Paris Saclay, France. Corinne Bigot is Associate Professor at Université Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès, France. Stephanie Genty was Associate Professor at the Université Paris Saclay, France, and now retired. Nathalie Saudo-Welby is Professor at the University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France. The co-editors are part of an inter-university research group called FAAAM and have worked on two previous volumes: Text and Image in Women’s Life Writing (2021) and Women’s Life Writing and the Practice of Reading (2018).

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions