Creativity and Feminist Knowledge

Abstract

This chapter explores the effects of feminist practices on producing knowledge and the political and ethical questions that arise. It turns in particular to the role and meaning of creativity in feminist knowledge practices and politics. It argues that creative thinking, writing and doing happen everywhere, and a creative mode is always there, always waiting for an outing if we slow down and pay attention to the basics of what it means to ask questions, to write, to think, to act and to be. The chapter traces how institutionalised power constrains this possibility and how despite these constraints, new questions continue to emerge in feminist spaces. These ‘new’ questions emerge despite neglect, and despite the closed doors. The chapter invites readers and students of feminist global politics to pay greater attention to this mechanism, to find ways – creatively – to buck history and the effects of power. One important way this can happen is by asking curious feminist questions early (and often!) so we can tell fuller stories and extend the role of stories in feminist politics and theorising.