Homesickness: Housework, Worldbuilding, and Artmaking
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Authors
Grove, Rhianna
Date
2025-09-25
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Critical Phenomenology , Environmental Aesthetics , Housework , Homemaking , Dwelling
Alternative Title
Abstract
Homemaking practices have been heavily criticized by feminists like Luce Irigaray and Simone de Beauvoir for their role in the subjugation of women. While sympathetic to the way that homemaking has been deployed in deeply problematic ways, largely to the harm of racialized and Indigenous women, I contend that homemaking is a foundational aspect of life. As such, it is vital that we develop a mode of houseworking that allows us to undertake these necessary, life-sustaining tasks, without unduly burdening ourselves or resulting in an experience akin to Sisyphus and his boulder. This paper draws on theories of home, dwelling, and aesthetics to argue that homes and the work that goes into their production have value which can be recovered for the sake of individual and collective worldbuilding. I suggest that housework has two operative modes: (1) conservative housekeeping and (2) progressive homemaking—the latter of which is creative, future-oriented, and affirming of subjectivity.
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Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International