@inbook{f777b46c250c4f38ba3e5191d7d99abd,
title = "First-person narratives and feminism: tracing the maternal DNA",
abstract = "Second wave feminists used a particular form of memoir – personal testimony – in the then new political practice of consciousness-raising. Now, contemporary scholars have argued the recent practice of mothers writing about their lives online and in print are the inheritors of the consciousness-raising tradition. Using two first-person accounts by contemporary Australian journalists and feminists (Pryor 2014, Freedman 2015) of juggling work, study and motherhood through consuming anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication, this chapter examines how these newer forms of memoir/consciousness-raising represent both a continuity with, and a break from, earlier forms of the practice. These contemporary stories still provide readers with consolation and relief; but where personal stories were once used to interrogate problems in women{\textquoteright}s social worlds (Friedan, 1963, Summers 1975), the contemporary feminists{\textquoteright} stories discussed here emphasise individual choice, adaptation and personal transformation (including a medical transformation at a fundamental level of self). The use of memoir by these contemporary writers is also considered in the context of a new version of celebrity feminism, one where the author{\textquoteright}s life story is now foregrounded. Finally, this chapter argues that the personal story, once harnessed by second wavers to build a movement, is now recruited by contemporary feminists to build a personal brand.",
keywords = "first person narrative, memoir, feminism, fourth-wave feminism, third-wave feminism, second-wave feminism, neo-liberalism, narrative, celebrity feminism, journalism, Betty Friedan, consciousness raising, Mia Freedman, Lisa Pryor, Anne Summers",
author = "Kath Kenny",
year = "2018",
language = "English",
isbn = "9781138092723",
series = "Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature",
publisher = "Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group",
pages = "221--236",
editor = "Bunty Avieson and Fiona Giles and Sue Joseph",
booktitle = "Mediating memory",
address = "United Kingdom",
}