Postcolonial and decolonial subaltern feminisms

Abstract

ABSTRACT The encounter between postcolonialism and feminism, since the 1980s, has brought about important theoretical and political contributions to both fields, reverberating in the debate on gender to the present day. This article examines how the geopolitical division between North and South has influenced the global feminist debate, engendering a conflictual feminist discourse. This article intends to highlight the political dimension of conflict in those feminist representations brought forward by postcolonial and decolonial interventions, which denounce colonial dynamics inside the movement and question the scope of its representational capacity. I propose the term ‘subaltern feminisms’ to understand these internal dynamics, as put forward by Third World feminisms, in their postcolonial and decolonial diversity. I first explore the theoretical and political transformations that facilitated the encounter between postcolonialism and feminism. I go on to develop the concept of ‘subaltern feminisms’, proposing it as an analytical category that highlights the conflictual dimension within the global feminist agenda. I then argue that decolonial feminism assembles different Latin American subaltern feminisms by articulating and reinstating decolonization as a political project. Finally, I critically examines the concept of ‘coloniality of gender’ as a feminist contribution to the ‘decolonial turn’.