Consciousness Raising, Identity Politics, and the Public / Private Divide
Consciousness Raising, Identity Politics, and the Public / Private Divide

Summary/Abstract: My paper inquires into the formation of intersubjectivity within consciousness raising groups. It begins by outlining the debate over the meanings of experience and their implication for feminism. I contend that, while experience needs to be adequately theorized and understood as discursively constructed, the context of the narration of experience matters too. Then I proceed to explore the specifics of this context in the case of consciousness raising groups, understood as alternative public spheres and using poststructuralist feminist theories of the public / private divide. I contend that it is issues, not identities, that are politicised and traded within the public sphere, and I plead for disentangling consciousness raising from identity politics. At the same time, I call for a more historically contextual and less monolithical understanding of identity politics; I claim that the exploration of political issues as stemming from historically specific discursive contexts can allow for a more imaginative and future oriented activism.

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