"Life has done almost as well as art": Deconstructing The Maimie Papers

How well, some feminists are asking, does post-modernist theory meet the needs of the oppressed? Its invitation to deconstruct the subject can undermine the very terms of identity needed for self-representation. In this paper I evaluate deconstructive methods by looking at how they might apply - or fail to apply - to the life and writing of Maimie Pinzer, a sometime sex worker, social worker and copious letter writer in early twentieth century Philadephia. Only by foregrounding individual histories can we really sense what is at stake in the larger philosophical exchange between post modernism and feminism.