‘Anything but an eternal truth’: representing left histories Three Representations.

Abstract

After months of preparation, discussion and publicizing we have a final product at last! As the first issue of left history goes public it is an exciting moment for us. The direction of the journal could take us anywhere (well, almost!). I firmly believe that these things take on a life and a meaning of their own, frequently independent of their genesis. While we won't lose sight of our original intention to create a forum for an interdisciplinary leftist approach to history, it also seems likely that world political events (such as the future of Marxism, the new Clinton administration in the U.S., the rise of fascism and religious fundamentalism) will direct our interests and discussion in future issues of the journal. As a feminist labour historian with an interest in pursuing postmodern/poststructuralist theories I'm committed to creating space for discussion across a number of theoretical positions. I am interested in a critical history, which engages both Marxist theories and postmodern/poststructuralist theories with a feminist politics. In recent years many such attempts to talk across differences have resembled more a slandering and pontificating than a genuine attempt to make common cause with one another. Yet such discussions offer potential rewards for those of us engaged in both writing gender histories and in practicing feminist politics outside the academy. Postmodern/poststructuralist theories allow us to see the gendered and constructed nature of knowledge and language, while laying bare the subjective and gendered nature of so-called objective fields such as science. This approach allows us to begin to unravel some of the ways in which we have come to be gendered beings, with a view to calling into question and changing those invisible structures which continue to bind women to oppressive social relations. I am interested in exploring the range of power relations acting within social formations that result in oppressions of class, race, gender, sexual orientation or age. The aim here is not to focus on these labels but to move beyond them and explore the similarities and differences arising from such intersections in order that we can better theorize them and move towards a changed social structure. This is not to suggest that such work will be easy. But it is only through the genuine desire to engage in discussion that we will have the potential to harness these different perspectives to a feminist politics.