How can I turn my feminist ethnographic engagement into words? A perspective on knowledge production inspired by Audre Lorde

Abstract

AbstractThe article explores the topic of turning a feminist activist ethnographic “fieldwork” into words, that is, of writing an ethnographic account in a feminist way. It builds on the work of Audre Lorde to underline the role of emotions in a feminist writing process producing emancipatory knowledge. First, the article contributes to the topic of emotions in feminist writing, by redefining induction as an emotional rather than a rational process. Second, I show how the contribution of Audre Lorde to rethinking writing as an emancipatory process helped me come out of silence and gain empowerment, and hence how writing can be a feminist empowering action. Finally, displaying a story about my experience of writing can hopefully resonates with the ones of others and challenge dominant accounts of writing as a linear process.