Talk: Goldsmiths College: Why Write? Feminism, Publishing and Politics of Communication

6 June 2014

The question of what to write, how to write, and where to write have always been central to feminism.  Writing matters not only in the dissemination of knowledge but to the creation of feminist publics. The history of feminism includes a history of materials that have been passed around. In this workshop we hope both to return to some of these histories of feminist writing (to consider, for example, the role of feminist presses, the uses of brochures and pamphlets as well as experimentations with genre) as well as to reflect on the challenges and opportunities for feminists raised by digitalization. We hope to open up theoretical questions about the materiality of writing, the relation of writing to bodies and worlds, as well as practical questions about how we write, publish, distribute, own, access or display feminist work (from literature, art, drama and performance, to blogging, journalism and academic books). By ‘writing’ we thus not only refer to scripts or texts, but all forms of communication.

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