cixous Flashcards
why was The laugh of the Medusa written
it was a manifesto for l’ecriture feminine (feminine writing)
why is ecriture an important term?
- distinguishes french theory from different types fo European criticism (germna idealism/ ango-american pragmaticism)
- ## describes everythign about writing which cannot be forced into an empirical reality
Who was Cixous?
- Born in Oran, Algeria, to a diasporic jewish family who spoke French and German, and was surrouded by spanish and arabic
- expeirenced anti-semitism in the Vichy regime, and saw French colonial rule of algeria as neither a french nor an Arab
- her mother was a midwife and often brought Helen along with her to work
- taught at Bordeaux, and began to work on a doctoral thess on Joyce
- She was in the same circles as Derrida, Lacan, Gennette, and Todorov
- She established Paris VIII (where many post-structuralist etc writers/ thinkers went- Focault etc)
what is deconstructionism/ ecriture?
- Previously in Western Philosophy, there existed a hierarchy of speech over writing (because speech is seen as being more direct that writing)
- In Derrida’s On Grammatology, he not only reverses but redefines the hierarchy of these terms, as he demonstrates the lag of speech, due to the artificial/ arbitrary connection between the signifier and the signified
- Hegel suggests that logocentric structures are organised in binaries (good/evil, real/ fake, man/women) where one term is valued, another is devalued
- deconstructionism therefore has the aim of making readable the forgotted/ unacknowledged structure
how did Cixous build upon the tradition of ecriture
- she didn’t accept feminine as being merely the binary opposite of male
- she questioned the binary structure itself/ the adequacy of binary structures to name the complexity of cultural realities
what is the central scandal/ contradiction in Cixous work?
- Cixous insists on two incompatible logics:
1) ecriture feminine is defined by EXPLICITLY female body parts that had been repressed in traditional discourse
2) She claims that both MEN and WOMEN use ecriture inclusive
significance of Medusa in freudian thought
- to decapitate= to castrate
- terror of medusa is a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something (often female gentials covered in hair)
- Medusa/ the oedipal complex: looking at the forbidden mother’s in illicit desire, causes the subject to freeze in fear of the Father’s punishment
what was the myth of medusa
Ovid describes Medusa as a stunningly beautiful maid who has many admires, including Poseidon. Poseidon rapes medusa, and out of jealously, Athena turns her hair to snakes and makes her so repulsive that she would turn the male gaze into stone
notable rheotorical figure of the start of the essay
repetition of ‘women must’
why is Cixous critical of Phallologocentrism
- male dominated, masculine coded linguistic and philosophical system, which prevents women from accessing their stories
- without access, women lack knowledge of the mulitple ways to be, including sexuality
- this means that they have no notion of the body, hence, are ‘nobdy’
what is the connection between female writing and female sexuality? (4)
- women are driven away from BOTH their sexualities and their writing
- Both writing and sexuality are distinctily female
- a woman climaxing, as well as a women writing successfully, is dependant on the removal of taboos in order for women NOT to be ashamed of their bodies
- by reclaiming their bodies, they will reclaim what is rightfully theirs (the cannon)
what does cixous do to the mind body split?
- fuses the body and the mind
- this dismantles the cartesian notion of a mind/body split
- her philosophy lies in the unification of the female figure, by making her whole : this opposes binary structures, including body/ mind
Cixous and Freud
- freud believed that women are defined by a lack (penis envy)
- cixous rejects the notion that women are wounded/ deprived without a phallus
- instead of this ‘lack’ causing them to be trapped between Medusa and the abyss (Freud) it is the western male dominated philosophy which causes this
- to bring about chnage, the MYTH has to be changed
how does Ecriture Femine differ to phallogocentricism
-women’s writing cant be pinned down, both an intellectual and bodily act that considers female desire, experience, sisterhood and love
medusa myth for cixous
rather than accept medusa as a monster, cixous resituates medusa, causing her to be both beautifully and symbollically laughing
- this laughter is disruptive and playful, and it mirrors abstract principles
