A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Intersectional Cultural Memory as Memory Activism in Michelle Cliff's Free Enterprise; 
Authors: Ilmonen, Kaisa
Publisher: Copenhagen Business School
Publication year: 2026
Journal: American Studies in Scandinavia
Volume: 58
First page : 43
Last page: 59
ISSN: 0044-8060
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22439/asis.v58i1.7798
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/assc/article/view/7798
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526546989
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY NC ND
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Cultural memory concerns the question of how we remember, and cultural memory studies examines the collective frames and cultural narratives that shape our individual remembering. This article examines the potential of intersectionality as a mode of cultural and collective remembering in Michelle Cliff’s novel Free Enterprise (1993) and suggests that the novel is an attempt to rewrite US cultural memory, and particularly the history of the US Civil War, from a memory activist perspective. This article argues that Cliff’s novel presents a narrative process that complements documented and foundational US cultural memory frames. While intersectionality has been gainful in the exploration of identities and social structures, this article specifically seeks the analytic potentiality of the application of intersectional cultural memory studies at a symbolic level. Free Enterprise offers an intersectional rewriting of the history of slavery and the US Civil War by centering the powerful activism of women, people of color, disabled people, and queer people, turning the reimagining of US cultural memory into memory activism.
Keywords:
Cultural Memory, Intersectionality, memory activism, Michelle Cliff
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |
Funding information in the publication:
Turku Institute for Advanced Studies