At the kitchen table with my ancestors

Nenadović, Ana

Abstract

This short personal essay focuses on the possibility of passing feminist thought and action from one generation to another within a family. Inspired by Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table Series , I imagine a roundtable with my matrilineal ancestors. I examine the question of what constitutes feminisms and whether my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother considered themselves feminists in a place where it is not always easy to be a feminist: former Yugoslavia and its diaspora. I argue that the stories about my ancestors that I heard growing up made me a feminist and, alongside my readings and activism, shaped my understanding of feminisms, even when my ancestors themselves might not have considered themselves feminists.

Citation

Nenadović, A. (online). At the kitchen table with my ancestors. Feminist Theory, https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001251326448

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Apr 13, 2025
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 26, 2025
• Journal: Feminist Theory
• Print ISSN: 1464-7001
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-2773
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001251326448
• Keywords: intergenerational feminisms, Yugoslavia, personal essay, memory, African-American feminism
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/14647001251326448