Fantasizing the Family
Women, Families and the Quest for an Individual Self
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4908172 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alison Mackinnon (University of Saint Joseph, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 663-675 |
| Publication date | 2006-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Women s History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0961-2025 • E-ISSN: 1747-583X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09612020500530893 |
| OpenAlex | W2078832285 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Much is made in current sociology of the ‘individualizing project of modernity’. The assumption appears to be that women who have previously been embedded in ‘family’ are increasingly becoming, and are viewed as, ‘individuals’. But is the notion of the individualizing self a product of a late twentieth and early twenty‐first century way of viewing the world, one which frequently fantasizes the past? Is it not the case that throughout history women have attempted to retain a sense of an individual self apart from their family persona but that the various ways in which history has described them and analysed them has resulted in their invisibility within certain categories? Drawing on several diverse research projects, this essay looks at representations of ‘the family’ portrayed through the varied lenses of feminist history (the family as site of conflict and oppression) demographic history (the family as the unchanging unit of measurement) and family history where it is viewed as both a constant but changeable presence. These representations are frequently ‘at odds’, some versions offering more spaces for women’s voices and agency than others
Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Family history · Humanities · Invisibility · Modernity · Oppression · Persona · Political science · Politics · Sense of agency · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2019 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |