Needlework, Affect and Social Transformation
The Everyday Textures of Feminist Activism
1st Edition
Published on 21. September 2023
200 pages
978-1-350-28359-6 (ISBN)
Description
Needlework, Affect and Social Transformation offers an original framework for moving beyond binary discourses that class practices of needlework as either feminist or reactionary. Using transnational, contemporary case studies - such as the Social Justice Sewing Academy, fictionalised Bangladeshi garment workers as well as the famous Pussyhat Project - Katja May suggests a new approach to the interpretation of textile crafts as an affective social practice, and draws on under-represented issues of race.
May connects her study to broader material and social conditions of inequality, allowing for a nuanced and sensitive understanding of the role of needlework in feminist political activism. This broader look at how textile crafts function in the realms of politics and activism conceptualizes quilting, dressmaking, embroidery and knitting as routine activities invested with emotions and entangled with material and social conditions as well as political potential.
May connects her study to broader material and social conditions of inequality, allowing for a nuanced and sensitive understanding of the role of needlework in feminist political activism. This broader look at how textile crafts function in the realms of politics and activism conceptualizes quilting, dressmaking, embroidery and knitting as routine activities invested with emotions and entangled with material and social conditions as well as political potential.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 bw illus
ISBN-13
978-1-350-28359-6 (9781350283596)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2025
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€43.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
10/2023
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€122.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Katja May is an independent researcher, quilter and feminist activist. She has a PhD in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Kent and she has facilitated multiple feminist craftivism events. Her research interests include textile crafts, feminist activism, affect, social transformation and the phenomenology of making.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Affective Politics of Needlework
1. Quilting Black Resistance: Slavery's Afterlives, Creativity and Social Justice
2. Sewing Desire: Homework, Gendered Agency and Bangladeshi Diaspora
3. Stitching Transnational Solidarity: Textile Crafts and Cross-Cultural Encounters
4. Knitting Feminist Politics: Craftivism and Affective Tension
Coda : Un-making Whiteness
Notes
Bibliography
Appendix 1
Index
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Affective Politics of Needlework
1. Quilting Black Resistance: Slavery's Afterlives, Creativity and Social Justice
2. Sewing Desire: Homework, Gendered Agency and Bangladeshi Diaspora
3. Stitching Transnational Solidarity: Textile Crafts and Cross-Cultural Encounters
4. Knitting Feminist Politics: Craftivism and Affective Tension
Coda : Un-making Whiteness
Notes
Bibliography
Appendix 1
Index
