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ALTERNATIVES: Black Feminism in the Postimperial Nation Ranu Samantrai Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002; 219 pp.
In AlterNatives: Black Feminism in the Postimperial Nation, Ranu Samantrai examines the activism of the Black feminist movement from the late 1970s to early 1990s in what she calls postimperial England. By signifying it as postimperial, Samantrai places England in a specific relationship with its own imperial history and, by selecting the most vibrant moment in Black women's activism, she places dissent at the heart of the process of transforming and radicalizing the liberal democratic nation. She aims to make visible the critical role of the most disenfranchised groups in questioning the norms of the status quo and transforming the society. Her central claim is that the dissent of the Black women's movement contests the very definition of Englishness and alters the nativist terms of membership in the nation. Indeed, this is reflected in the creativity of the title, Alternatives.
Methodologically, this work is primarily a critical analysis of documents. Samantrai seeks out voices of dissent in alternative data sources and in spaces of subjugated knowledge, thus using feminist libraries and unique archives safeguarded by dedicated feminist volunteers. The unconventionality of the sources is reinforced by incredible richness of the data that include narratives in hand written notes and taped messages, anthologies and case studies, unpublished documents and collective texts, newsletters and published books as well as historical and legal documents. The close examining of these documents draws readers right into the centre, thus enabling them to see the feminist movement from the inside out. The analysis is creatively crafted around a closely argued and clearly mapped out theoretical approach. In its intertwining of historical narratives and sophisticated theoretical debates, Alternatives appeals to a wide range of feminist activism, from grassroots to academia. Indeed, its piercing insights should benefit a variety of other social movements.
Samantrai critically examines the role of dissent and...