Sewing, Fighting and Writing: Radical Practices in Work, Politics and Culture (Radical Cultural Studies)

A feminist genealogy of the industrial revolution Parisian seamstress, exploring her agentic intervention in the socio-cultural and political formations of modernity. Paris, along with New York, was one of the main centres of the fashion industry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But although New York based garment workers were mobilized early in the twentieth century, Paris was the stage of vibrant revolutions and uprisings throughout the nineteenth century. As a consequence, French women workers were radicalized much earlier, creating a unique and unprecedented moment in both labour and feminist history. Seamstresses were central figures in the socio-political and cultural events of nineteenth and early twentieth century France but their stories and political writings have remained marginalized and obscured. Drawing on a wide range of published and unpublished documents from the industrial revolution, ‘Sewing, Fighting and Writing’ is a foucauldian genealogy of the Parisian seamstress. Looking at the assemblage of radical practices in work, politics and culture, it explores the constitution of the self of the seamstress in the era of early industrialization and revolutionary events and considers her contribution to the socio-political and cultural formations in modernity. Introduction: charting lines of flight : the parisian seamstress -- Adventures in a culture of thought : genealogies, narratives, process -- Mapping the archive : mnemonic and imaginary technologies of the self -- "From my work you will know my name" : materialising utopias -- Feeling the world : love, gender and agonistic politics -- Living and writing the revolution -- Creativity as process : writing the self, rewriting history -- Conclusion: reassembling radical practices -- Bibliography. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Charting Lines of Flight 12 1. Adventures in a Culture of Thought 32 2. Mapping the Archive 44 3. ‘From my work you will know my name’ 68 4. Feeling the World 118 5. Living, Writing and Imagining the Revolution 144 6. Creativity as Process 184 Reassembling Radical Practices 206 Archival Sources and Bibliography 220 Index 238 About the Author 246