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Disarticulated Voices: Feminism and Philomela

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Abstract

By juxtaposing readings of selected feminist critics with a reading of Ovid's account of Philomela's rape and silencing, this essay interrogates the rhetorical, political, and epistemological implications of the feminist “we.” As a political intervention that comes into being as a response to women's oppression, feminism must posit a collective “we.” But this feminist “we” is best understood as an impersonal, performative pronoun whose political force is not derived from a knowable referent.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by Hypatia, Inc.

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