Telling stories about feminist art

Bibliographic Data

ID4828898
AuthorsMichelle Meagher (0000-0002-4898-4315, University of Alberta, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume12
Issue3
Pages297-316
Publication date2011-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1464700111417669
OpenAlexW1966475695
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited24

Responding to a recent surge of interest in feminist art, its futures, and its history, this article considers the nature and function of the dominant narratives that circulate and structure the field. Specifically, I explore the persistent story of inter-generational strife in which a first generation of artists and historians is understood to have been naïvely mired in an essentialism of which a second, more theoretically savvy generation has been subsequently cleansed. Although one would be hard pressed to identify contemporary scholars who promote this sort of generationally bound progress narrative, the story persists. Its persistence, I argue, has less to do with its truth telling ability and more to do with its ability to perform the function of disidentification

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Essentialism · Futures contract · Literature · Narrative · Sociology · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Education Studies Worldwide · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Philosophy