Contemporary Women’s Autofiction as Critique of Postfeminist Discourse

ABSTRACT

While commentaries on the phenomenon of postfeminism have centred on its manifestations in media and popular culture, this article highlights the potential of literature for extending existing debates within postfeminist studies. I argue that the emergence of contemporary women’s autofiction offers the possibility of a literary response to the individualising narrative of a neoliberal and postfeminist sensibility. I advance this contention via an analysis of two texts: Sheila Heti’s How Should A Person Be? (2012) and Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation (2014). Their writing practice is resolutely political because it employs the confessional mode, as indebted to the emancipatory roots of the feminist movement, to reflect on the enduring marginality of female artistic identity. By foregrounding the inherently provisional nature of their being, both texts emphasise that the search for a viable artistic consciousness and experiments in artistic method are as crucial as the final product itself, especially when the definition of woman as artist still remains contested. I thus locate the existence of these texts in a wider social imaginary conducive for feminist organising. In this respect, the rising popularity of contemporary women’s autofiction may offer strategies crucial for remediating an otherwise diminished feminist politics of the present.     

Broadcasting agitainment: a new media strategy of Putin’s third presidency

This article argues that accounts of the Russian media system that tend to view the time from Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000 as a single homogenous period do not capture major qualitative shifts in state-controlled media coverage. By analyzing the output of Russia’s two main television channels during Putin’s third presidential term, we identify a range of distinctly new features that amount to a new media strategy. This involves a significant increase in the coverage of political issues through the replacement of infotainment with what we term agitainment—an ideologically inflected content that, through adapting global media formats to local needs, attempts to appeal to less engaged and even sceptical viewers. Despite the tightening of political control over the media following the annexation of Crimea, the new strategy paradoxically has strengthened the constitutive role played by the state-controlled broadcasters in the articulation of official discourse.     

Gender and local executive office in regional Russia: the party of power as a vehicle for women’s empowerment?

We employ a political ambition framework to study women’s under-representation in Russian local politics. We conduct a survey of current heads of municipal districts and municipal urban and rural settlements in four regions of the Russian Federation. The study reveals gendered pathways to local leadership positions. The advantage of incumbency is fully used by male politicians: male incumbents are more likely than female incumbents to run for re-election. Self-initiated ambition, term in office, and age explain the decisions of male executives to run for re-election. Female incumbents are likely to run for a subsequent term only if they are supported by the United Russia Party.     

How to be a Girl: Consumerism Meets Guidance in the Australian Women’s Weekly’s Teen Segments, 1952–1959

In 1952, when Australian teenagers were beginning to emerge as their own distinct social and consumer group, the Australian Women’s Weekly introduced a column specifically targeted at teens. “Youth Sums Up” was intended for both boys and girls, but by 1954 it had developed into For Teenagers, a monthly lift-out aimed predominantly at girls, which became Australia’s first version of a national teen girl magazine. In this article, I examine the ways in which the Weekly used its teen segments and lift-outs to mould teenage girls into the 1950s feminine ideal, and to sell the products that reflected the attitudes and values of the time to this new and powerful young market. I also demonstrate that while the Weekly’s teen segments promoted a traditional femininity, some of its teen girl readers publicly rejected these notions within the pages of the magazine, giving us a broader understanding of teenage girls, girl culture, and what is usually defined as a purely conservative decade.     

The image of ‘ideal’ Turkish womanhood? a Bakhtinian approach to Halide Edib Adıvar’s Raik’in Annesi (Raik’s Mother) (1909)

Critics often read Halide Edib Ad?var’s Raik’in Annesi (Raik’s Mother, 1909) as an affirmation of the author’s vision of ‘ideal’ womanhood, one which is aligned with the visions of reformers involved in the projects of Turkish nationalism and modernisation. This article presents an analysis of the novel that both incorporates and goes beyond such accounts. Instead of focusing on depictions of the heroine (Refika) as signs of female objectification or as reflections of Ad?var’s views on the woman question, the analysis focuses on the dialogic properties of the text in order to attend to the ways in which the heroine is presented as the locus of an ongoing conflict between her own aspirations for independence and the various opinions and judgements about her that are set within the discursive boundaries of ‘ideal’ womanhood. The analysis draws on Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism (and concepts related to it, in particular ‘authoritative and internally persuasive discourse’ and the notion of internal dialogue) and examines the tension between the hegemonic discourse that asserts the role of ‘ideal’ wife-mother and the dissenting voices in the text that provide insight into the heroine’s experiences and struggles for autonomy. In doing so, we can develop a sense of the polyvocal, dialogic and inconsistent depiction of the heroine while drawing out the texts’ critiques of the conventions of womanhood and marriage and their effects on women. By analysing such contradictory depictions of Refika, the article aims to draw attention to the way in which the text problematises the image of ‘ideal’ womanhood, whilst offering reflection on the novel’s concluding commentary on the woman struggle for agency and freedom.     

The Rise of Linguistic Philosophy and Pragmatic Turn in Jurisprudence Research on Hart’s Jurisprudence Under Language Game

Linguistic turn from epistemology to linguistic philosophy constitutes the most important philosophy thinking foundation in 20th century western Jurisprudence. Under the background of this kind of theory current of thought H.L.A. Hart, the master of western Jurisprudence, succeeded in applying the theory of language game advocated by Wittgenstein into the research of Jurisprudence and caused the pragmatic turn of 20th century western Jurisprudence. Hart’s methodology is one of the most precious resources in Chinese Jurisprudence research, so our Jurisprudence research should learn and benefit from it.     

The Malta Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting: The Commonwealth’s New Beginnings?

This article argues that the Commonwealth needs to speak with a distinctive voice on a range of issues confronting the world, failing which it will lose its relevance. This calls for inspirational and strong leadership and a clear focus on the organisation’s charter. Among the concrete proposals suggested by the article for the reinvigoration of the Commonwealth is the establishment of a Commission for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human Rights inspired by the model of the Council of Europe Venice Commission.