The essay as a form and the narrative as a method: encounters with Critical Theory and black feminism

Abstract

Abstract: Based on the thoughts of authors of the Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, and of authors of black feminism, especially bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins, this paper defends the essay and the narrative writing as an alternative to rigid forms of scientific production. Both the essay and the narrative, as they are deeply based on experience, better reflect the object and its historical transformations, as well as the corresponding subjective transformations. The hardening of science manifested in the use of ready-made essay writing formulas and in the reproduction of established methodologies can be identified with colonialism (capitalist, racist, patriarchal). The thinking developed by the Critical Theory and the authors of black feminism can act as different paths of resistance to be imitated and creatively recombined.