| Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / Photograph: Stephen Voss |
BOOK OF THE DAY
The Future Is Feminist review – two centuries of women’s wit and wisdom
Editor Mallory Farrugia’s energising collection traces the living thread from Mary Wollstonecraft to Mindy Kaling
Tue 26 Feb 2019 07.00 GMT
I
n a way, The Future Is Feminist is aptly named, as it’s a Tardis of a book. Edited by Mallory Farrugia, the anthology zips back and forth between different time zones to offer “radical, funny and inspiring writing by women” as far back as the 18th century (an extract from Mary Wollstonecraft’s groundbreaking 1792 book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), through to modern articles, such as Naomi Alderman’s ambitious How to Build a Truly Feminist Society (the Guardian, 2017). All 21 pieces have previously appeared elsewhere, as everything from poems and essays to book excerpts, even speeches. While Jessica Valenti notes in her foreword that recent times have seen “an explosion in the cultural power and relevance of feminism”, this anthology also serves as a reminder that the wick on the feminist dynamite has long fizzed dangerously.