ABSTRACT
Personal letters have not only recorded the social history of second-wave feminism, they have actively shaped it. It is because feminism places such a conscious emphasis on the politics of personal relationship. Feminist deconstruction of the divide between public and private finds its epistolary expression in letters of coming out, letters of community or testimony, 'open letters' of petition and essay, and simply those missives of changing ideas and emotions between friends, families, lovers. Karen Payne's Between Ourselves: Letters between Mothers and Daughters 1750-1982 shines with hope of a new dialogue between old enemies. The letters in this book show an extraordinary 'private' revolution of attitudes towards sexuality, reproduction, childrearing, partnerships and family. Both the unsent letters and the letters that succeed in their attempts to generate correspondence raise the quandary of feminist (re-)education. Letter-writing pinpoints how much political activism is still about cathecting desires and ultimately changing relationships.
