I Love Dick. Image: Sian Norris
For Chris Kraus’ feminist classic I Love Dick reissued in paperback this year feels like perfect timing. Its republication by Serpent’s Tail has come at a time when more and more women are writing auto-fiction and straight fiction that attempts to tell a truth about sexuality, friendship, feminism and the wide variety of women’s lived experiences. From Joanna Walsh’s Hotel and Vertigo, Claire Louise Bennett’s Pond, Zoe Pilger’s Eat your Heart Out and Katherine Angel’s Unmastered, I’m constantly picking up books that explore women’s lives in an often exposing, uncomfortable but ultimately satisfying way.
It also makes sense in terms of the recent resurgence of feminism. Although feminism never went away, there has been an upsurge in feminist publishing and activism over the last five years - and again, particular attention has been paid to the expressions and depictions of female sexuality. The personal has always been the political in feminism, and as we live our lives ever more in the public glare of social media this maxim feels truer than ever.
