Intra-mat-extuality: feminist resilience within contemporary literature

Abstract

ABSTRACT Neoliberalism is traversing socio-cultural and political discourses across the globe. In the feminist movement, it is contributing to a paradoxical dance where feminism’s massification is resulting in a loss of values and radicalism as a social justice movement. In this article, I argue that a reconfiguration of the definition of the literary object can serve as a strategic tool to break through what Nancy Fraser has labelled as “the handmaiden of capitalism”. In order to do so, I elaborate the concept of “intra-mat-extuality” as a methodological and political strategy. As a case study, I use the phenomenon The Handmaid’s Tale to configure global resilient feminist interferences in these neoliberal contemporary times.