Denise Riley’s Socialized Biology: Navigating the Boundaries Between Social and Biological Realms

Abstract

Denise Riley, born in 1948, is a renowned poet and prose writer known for her work influenced by political and personal contexts. Her work often combines feminist and libertarian perspectives, addressing issues such as the moral condemnation of dependent mothers, restricted nursery services, inadequate housing regulations, and the isolation imposed by bourgeois familialism. Riley’s work also features autobiographical introspection, such as her 1977 poem “Marxism for Infants,” which explores the challenges of living alone with children and the philosophical question of whether anyone truly has a family. Riley’s political ideas in the 1970s were influenced by Marxist-Leninist theory, the Women’s Liberation Movement, left libertarianism, and direct action campaigns like the Unsupported Mother’s Group. She questioned the Marxist legacy for treating “the family” as a unitary concept and argued that Riley’s feminism sees housing and the family as fundamentally political concepts intertwined with property relations. Riley’s feminist socialized biology asserts that every reproductive experience should be analyzed alongside specific social and political discourses, laws, and campaigns. Her poetry collection, Marxism for Infants, emphasizes conservative viewpoints in efforts to “retrain” awareness through moral and cultural instruction.