Asking the relevant questions

Background: This 5000-word essay was commissioned by Ashley Hay and Natasha Cica (eds) for Griffith Review. The research question (provided) was to ‘investigate the links and legacies that flow both ways between Europe and Australia, the thoughts and ideas from these two parts of the world and how they impact on and operate in each other’ (Hay 2020, p7). I was commissioned to engage with new thinking by three European women philosophers from my perspective as the child of a European migrant living in Australia and on the strength of my reputation for writing popular feminist philosophy as established with The Thinking Woman (2019). Contribution: In exploring the above research question, ‘Asking the relevant questions’ works methodologically to extend my experimentation with a form of non-fiction writing that collapses the binaries of personal/philosophical, academic/popular, didactic/poetic. Here I survey recent philosophical work by Rosi Braidotti, Vinciane Despret and Corine Pelluchon and evaluate the relevance of their thinking for Australians now (post 2020 bushfires, mid-pandemic). Through an innovative blend of personal essay and scholarly philosophical engagement, reminiscent of the work of Andrew Solomon and Rebecca Solnit, the notion of identity formation as a collective work-in-progress is central to the method. Significance: Griffith Review, established in 2003, has been hailed as ‘Australia’s leading literary journal (Monocle) and reaches a national readership via broad audience engagement. More specifically, ‘Asking the relevant questions’ contributes to a blossoming contemporary feminist literary practice in Australia and introduces these three thinkers to a new audience. On the strength of this essay, I have been invited to present the keynote address at the Australasian Association of Writing Programs conference at Griffith University in November 2020, where I will extend my philosophical engagement with Corine Pelluchon.