Inconstant Joy: Language, Feminism, Politics: Writings 1979–2005

By Denise Riley

A key selection of Denise Riley's earlier prose writings, including some originally published in the USA, ranging from reflections on the history of feminism itself through to pronatalism and family policies, philosophies of voice, and poetics.

Introducing her work on the emotionality of language in social contexts, this book offers readers a fuller sense of 'second wave' feminism and the women's liberation movement, including their contemporary relevance.

Denise Riley anticipated, some forty years ago, the pressures on feminists to define - and question - the category of 'woman' that have become intense and vital with the rise of transgender liberation. At the time, she was developing her argument that 'the uncertainties of how "women" are and have been rhetorically invoked can, in fact, work as a tactical strength for feminism' in the context of deconstructive theories and tensions between socialist, radical, Black power and other approaches to women's liberation. With meticulous and refined argument, she challenged us to realise that we have no choice but to embrace the indeterminacy of the category, that it has always been so for progressives, but that this need not prevent political organization nor recognition of the 'harsh stubbornness of lived gender'.

With an introduction by the historian Joan W. Scott, this collection brings together the work of an outstanding theorist and writer on themes that are still highly relevant today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1807813924
• ISBN13: 9781807813925
• Release Date: June 2027
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Dimensions: 6.4" x 9.4"