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Witches and the Future

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Feminist Afterlives of the Witch

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender ((PSRG))

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Abstract

In this final chapter, I consider the temporality of feminist activist memory, and offer a view of it as a utopian practice that is future-oriented. Drawing on recent memory studies scholarship that emphasizes hope and utopian philosophy, this chapter suggests that the hauntological feminist activist memory practice outlined in this book is fundamentally unprogrammed and drives towards justice through its spectrality. This plays out across popular culture iterations of the witch in both resistant and regressive ways, and demonstrates the multidirectionality of feminist activist memory. The emphasis on hope and utopianism aligns with feminist politics and particularly with activist intention, as well as with the re-reading practice that is demonstrated throughout this monograph. Consequently, this chapter suggests that feminist activist memory and re-reading methodologies offer a radical and urgent addition to the fields of memory studies, cultural studies, and feminisms.

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Correspondence to Brydie Kosmina .

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Kosmina, B. (2023). Witches and the Future. In: Feminist Afterlives of the Witch. Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25292-1_8

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