Introduction. Women’s Stories of Crisis: Portals to Relationality, Vulnerability and Resistance?

Abstract

This special issue aims to provide a deeper insight into cultural responses to various contemporary crises, such as migratory movements in recent history and, at the very present moment, pandemics, climate change and such other unsettling societal processes as political and economic ruptures, armed conflicts or environmental disasters. In particular, our aim is to draw attention to the way these changes have affected women’s lives and the way female writers and artists represent these processes and their consequences in diverse cultural narratives, such as fiction, poetry, experimental and autobiographical works. We explore issues related to diaspora, feminism, environmentalism, new materialism, memory and identity from a transnational and intersectional perspective, attempting to find connections among those cultural texts by women voicing some of the most relevant crises that have configured and are still re-configuring our global and local identities.