Storytelling is a focal part of any critical work. This article maps
what kinds of narratives have been included in the often heated
discussions about intersectionality during the past ten years. Scholarly
discussions, including intersectionality, also create their own plot
patterns, which then regulate what can be argued or should not be
argued, what blind spots need to be illuminated, or which weaknesses
must be revised. What can we know about intersectionality in the light
of scholarly storytelling? How have narrative habits of feminist
storytelling affected the development of intersectionality? As a
fast-traveling theory, intersectionality has been examined and defined
closely in academic discussions, rendering it a target of heated
debates. Here, I would like to concentrate on enthusiasm about
intersectionality and ask: do we risk losing ethical enthusiasm and
compassion in suspicious, fault-finding feminist storytelling? I will
first consider feminist storytelling along the lines provided by Rita
Felski in The Limits of Critique, Robyn Wiegman in Object Lessons, and Clare Hemmings in Why Stories Matter.
After that, I will analyze some recurrent story lines that emerge in
debates about intersectionality, story lines concerning genealogy and
originalism, intersectionality’s relation to black feminism, narratives
of revision and correction, and numerous others. In conclusion, I offer
an alliance with Felski’s postcritical reading to develop new enthusiasm
about, and engagement with, intersectionality