Conjured by Mary Daly in Cahoots with Jane Caputi - Webster’s First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language.

 Conjured by Mary Daly in Cahoots with Jane Caputi. Webster’s First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language. (USA: Beacon Press, 1987). 

This text was mentioned by my supervisor at a conference presentation, so I bought the book. It is a humorous and insightful work that critiques patriarchal language and the ways it has been used to oppress women. This book also explores the power of language and the ways women can use it to reclaim their voices and challenge dominant cultural narratives. It is a playful rewriting of feminist language and history as a dictionary and encyclopaedia creating or revising etymologies. A webster is a weaving, and here the writers are weavers of words as well as women’s culture. It is described as a feminist conceptual engineering project. It changes meaning, spelling (as spells), and contexts, and reclaims slurs.

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