Interrogating the Postmodern: Feminist History after the Linguistic Turn

Abstract

This essay was written with the intention of exploring both personally and critically the growing dialogue among academic feminists and historians in regard to post-structuralism. What are the consequences of adopting gender- and literary-theory for methods of historical inquiry? Having been interested in the subject of female hysteria in Victorian America, I used this subject as a case study. This, I hope, will test claims made in the first thirty pages and also provide a concrete example from the past on which a historiography can be built and examined. I see this project not as my definitive statement on the subject but instead as a beginning.