“Feminist theory seems caught in its own narratives of progress, loss and return, which I argue echo broader conservative agendas that position feminism as over or anachronistic. It does not seem enough to tell different stories, to simply multiply feminisms. Might we instead tell stories differently? This paper makes the case for two different modes of telling that start from the affective location of the teller with the aim of interrupting these dominant narratives. The first explores the practice of recitation, a technique to intervene in the histories produced through citation practices; the second starts from affective breakdown by exploring the importance of ‘the unspeakable’ in reimagining recent feminist history and the subject’s role in its narration.”

Clare Hemmings is Reader in Feminist Theory at the Gender Institute, London School of Economics, where she has recently completed a period as Director. She is the author of Why Stories Matter: the Political Grammar of Feminist Theory (Duke, 2011) and Bisexual Spaces (Routledge, 2002). She is a member of the Feminist Review Collective, which seeks to create alternative spaces for feminist theory and practice.