On Voice and Silence

What happens when feminist academics activelyencourage students to grapple with poststructuralistthinking? Is it possible to enact a collectivefeminist politics based in poststructuralistunderstandings of subjectivity and power? How doesone negotiate the tension between the old desire fora unitary and coherent personal and collectiveidentity and an emerging desire for a personal andcollective complexity shot through with multipledifferences? This qualitative research thesis drawson Drusilla Modjeska's fictionalised biographyPoppy to bring poststructuralist thinking to life.Itmaps the process of finding and sometimes losing afeminist activist voice in contemporary Australia. Itintertwines poetry prose story theoreticalanalysis reflection journal writing transcript ofinterview and fanciful imagining to investigate theprocesses of re-storying the self in the light ofcurrent feminist understandings of subjectivityvoice and power.