European Journal of Women's Studies current issue

Editorial: Writing across the Borders

Bono, P., Lukic, J. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:40:12 PDT

Dangerous Liaisons

Ugresic, D., Bursac, E. E. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:40:56 PDT

Crossing the Borders of Identity Politics: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee and Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk

Buikema, R. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:02 PDT

This text seeks to rethink the relationship between literature and the gendered construction of national boundaries. It does so by proposing a reconsideration of the terms singularity, difference and literariness while analysing two talked-about and best-selling postcolonial novels, Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee and Agaat (2004) by Marlene van Niekerk.

Migrants' Art and Writings: Figures of Precarious Hospitality

Setti, N. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:08 PDT

Time, precarious lives and memories and multiple narrations related to crossing borders constitute the key meanings of a series of contemporary pieces of works produced by migrant artists and writers (Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Marwan Rechmaoui, Jumana Emil Abboud and Hoda Barakat). Through an analysis of some of their works, this article focuses on some spatio-temporal images, actions and metaphors related to movement (crossing, walking through, passing borders). Then it questions the exploration of narratives in visual arts, especially the relationship between imaginary fiction and reality stories. Theatre may become the very place where contemporary tales of migrant people are translated, (re)told, performed. The very meaningful notion of hospitality becomes a theatrical practice in one of the most relevant spectacles of the Théâtre du Soleil, Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées) (2003). Another aspect of this creative hospitality — Leïla Sebbar’s Mes Algéries en France — concerns the interweaving of memories belonging to opposite sides of divided countries, after the colonial wars. This work of collection, transcription, translation from one to another gives an example of writing (as fiction and narrative) as a repairing work but also of revelation of unknown connections.

Writing across the Borders of the Self

Bridger, B. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:10 PDT

The aim of this article is to demonstrate a methodology that ‘writes across’ the separation (border?) between theory and practice. It refers to French feminist writers of the 1970s and 1980s, often categorized under the heading of ‘écriture féminine’, who were concerned with how language operates and with the relationship between language and the formation of the self. The article consists of a short preface introducing a piece of autobiographical writing driving home(3). The piece brings into collision incidents, objects and time frames in an attempt to dissolve the borders between fact and fiction, personal and impersonal, private and public, poetic writing and analysis. In the act of writing driving home(3) the author also attempts to generate knowledge. driving home (3) searches within the anecdotal and autobiographical for methodological indicators. The how and why of the author’s writing practice run across, over and around each other, acting as short and inconclusive pathways within the investigative structure of the whole.

Explorations, Simulations: Claude Cahun and Self-Identity

Gravano, V. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:11 PDT

The purpose of this article is to construct a critique of some works by the French artist Lucy Schwob, better known as Claude Cahun, who was active between 1910 and 1950. A writer and photographer, Cahun was at first very close to symbolist positions; later she was closer to the surrealist movement. Her work and her life, continually suspended between genders, and between ‘normality’ and ‘deviance’, have so far been analysed mainly through gender studies. This article attempts to restore the inherent complexity of her poetic work and aesthetic. It tries to widen the field of study to deal with the representation of alterity, through reversing the stereotypical representation.

Musical 'Contact Zones' in Gurinder Chadha's Cinema

Guarracino, S. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:11 PDT

This article explores strategies of cultural representation in the production of Gurinder Chadha, a British director of Sikh origin. Chadha’s work is located in what Marie Louise Pratt defines as ‘contact zones’, negotiating between US, European and Indian audiences. The result is a directing style that puts together ‘East’ and ‘West’, Bollywood and Hollywood, in an in-between space that has been radically reconfigured through hybridization. This happens in particular through her use of music and soundtrack, from the documentary I’m British but ... (1990), up to the recent Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Bride and Prejudice (2004). Here, many and diverse musical languages are put together through the representational strategies of parody and kitsch, deconstructing the idea of cultural identity in the very gesture that creates it.

Book Review: Situating Displacements in Transnational Feminisms: Epistemological Practices in the Story of the Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves

Phoenix, A. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:12 PDT

Book Review: Feminist Women's hEalth Activism Across the Globe: Tracing the History and Impact of Our Bodies Ourselves: Kathy Davis The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves: How Feminism Travels across Borders Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2007, 277 pp., ISBN 978-0-8223-4066-9

Douglas, J. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:12 PDT

Book Review: Hopeful Feminist Stories: Kathy Davis The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves: How Feminism Travels across Borders Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2007, 277 pp., ISBN 978-0-8223-4066-9

Poleykett, B. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:13 PDT

Book Review: Revisiting Feminist Questions and Collaborations Across Politics of Location: Kathy Davis The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves: How Feminism Travels across Borders Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2007, 277 pp., ISBN 978-0-8223-4066-9

Fay, M. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:14 PDT

Book Review: Towards a Truly Transnational Feminism: Kathy Davis The Making of Our Bodies, Ourselves: How Feminism Travels across Borders Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 2007, 277 pp., ISBN 978-0-8223-4066-9

Ralston, M. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:15 PDT

Books Received

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:16 PDT

List of Referees 2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:18 PDT