
Crafting Feminism develops a dynamic study of craft and art-making in modern and contemporary feminist writing. In evocative readings of literary works from Virginia Woolf to Zadie Smith, this book expands our sense of transartistic modernist scholarship to encompass process-oriented and medium-specific analyses of textile arts, digital design, collage, photography, painting, and sculpture in literary culture. By integrating these craft practices into the book's enlightening archive, Elkins's theoretical argument extends a reading of craft metaphors into the material present. Crafting Feminism demonstrates how writers have engaged with handiwork across generations and have undertaken the crafting of a new modernity, one that is queer and feminist-threaded, messy, shattered, cut-up, pasted together, preserved, repaired, reflected, and spun out. An avant-garde work of scholarship, this book interweaves queer research methods and interdisciplinary rigor with a series of surprising archival discoveries. Making visible the collaborative, creative features of craft, Elkins captivates readers with generous illustrations and a series of "Techne" interchapters-interludes between longer chapters, which powerfully convey the symbiosis between feminist theory and method, and detail the network of archival influences that underpin this volume's hybrid approach. Foregrounding the work of decentering patriarchal and Eurocentric legacies of artistic authority, Elkins champions the diverse, intergenerational history of craft as a way to reposition intersectional makers at the heart of literary culture. An original and compelling study, Crafting Feminism breaks new ground in modernist and visual studies, digital humanities, and feminist, queer, and critical race theory.
This book investigates how feminist writers from the modernist era to the present have utilized craft practices and material art-making to challenge patriarchal and Eurocentric definitions of artistic authority. Amy E. Elkins, a scholar in modernist and visual studies, constructs a theoretical framework that bridges literary analysis with material culture. By examining the intersection of textile arts, digital design, and collage within literary texts, she argues that craft serves as a vital, process-oriented method for constructing queer and feminist modernities.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars in the fields of modernist studies and digital humanities recognize this work for its interdisciplinary rigor and its innovative approach to archival research. Readers frequently note the density of the theoretical prose and the effectiveness of the visual illustrations in grounding the author's arguments.
Page Count:
419
Publication Date:
2022-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192672452
ISBN-13:
9780192672452
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