Notes on French Feminism

LINKS

•  Taxonomy of Feminist Intellectual Traditions
• Critique of American version of French Feminism
• French Feminisms
• Comparing American and French Feminisms
• Interesting Course in American Indian Lit using Frecnh Feminist Ideas

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The Body, pp343-6

• What are the key premises of l'ecriture feminine?
• Combat Western dualism btw mind and body
• And reclaim the body for women, both as a source of pleasure and in its connection to writing
• Unrepress the female body; reclaim inportance of female subjectivity
• DECONSTRUCTION:
• first identify a dualism in culture
• See the hierarchy in the dualism
• re-value the subordinate term-- making it more important
• turn hierarchy upside down
• dissolve dualism
• What are the main difference between  male and female writing?

Male Writing	Female Writing
o logical o analytical o rational o linear o hierarchical o grammatical	o emotional o a-rational, irrational o contralogical circular o resistence to hierarchies o breaks the rules
o maturity o singleness o Law of teh Father	o infancy o multiplicity of kinds and sites of pleasure o connection to the mother

• What kinds of problems do American Feminists have with Frecnh Feminists?
• It is highly theoretical and based on philosophical transitions; therefore, does not seem to pay attention to political needs and realities
• It is essntialistic -- seems to assert that there are certain absolute, biological, innate qualities that women possess
• collapses differences among women
• claims as virtues qualities that men have found convenient
• over looks realities of women's lives
• theoretically fuzzy
• fatal to political actions
• sustain dualism by going along with it

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Ann Rosaline Jone, "Writing the Body"

• What is the basic critique of Western philosophy at the basis of French Feminist theory?
• TERMS
• phallogocentric -- idea from Derrida: that the Western tradition is based on a unitary, monolithic idea of Turth
• jouissance -- re-experience of physical pleasures of infancy
• KRISTEVA
• semiotic discourse  -- language that comes from infancy and physical sensations; non-grammatical; associated with desire and need.  Opposed to "symbolic" discourse, which is the language taught by the Father... syntactical language.
• definition of "woman"
• IRIGARAY
• multiplicity of female access to pleasure
• CIXOUS
• WITTIG
• more practical, more in tune with actual politics
• What positive things does French Feminism offer?