Écriture Feminine and the Poetry of Langston Hughes

This paper attempts to locate Hughes’s poetic diction as Ecriture feminine since like feminist poetry the diction of his poetry is rebellious and questions the hierarchical structure of society where White people hold more power and promote the idea of racial superiority. His desire to express the angst of the Blacks finds currency in the definition and explication of feminine writing. The focus of this paper will be on analysis of the poetry of Langston Hughes in the light of ecriture feminine in order to show how Hughes counters hegemony’s repressive rhetoric, challenges the loss of agency through the language of the dominant class and recreates another symbolic order.

Six thousand masks for one imposter

Having recently given, and published in Third Text referee journal and Third Text Online, a series of articles on mask, class and carnival, I was recently invited to write a text to accompany an exhibition relating to masks. Mask, Masque, Masc was a group exhibition hosted online between 14 and 31 May 2020. It was curated by Marc Hulson, Alessandra Falbo and Rolina E. Blok, and hosted by Five Years and Darling Pearls & Co at Platforms Project Net 2020 (see: <uri xlink:href="http://www.fiveyears.org.uk/archive2/pages/277/Masc_Mask_Masque/277.html">http://www.fiveyears.org.uk/archive2/pages/277/Masc_Mask_Masque/277.html</uri>. Accessed 28 July 2021). This article is a transformed version of that text, edited and extended to suit this journal and the requirements and suggestions of the journal’s reviewers. <roman>It starts out with an epigraph taken from Nietzsche, followed by two quotes from Walter Benjamin that relate writing playfully to ‘magic’. It later turns towards a conclusion with two more fulsome quotes from F.W. Nietzsche, which</roman> dispute the priority of truth and claim that every word is a mask. The piece aims to encourage and support newcomers to writing, as well as non-native speakers and those from less privileged backgrounds; any and all of whom might nervously feel that their own writing is in some way illegitimate. I draw upon my experience as an arts lecturer and arts writer, as the article becomes an example of an autobiographical strain in my work that uses first-person narratives to explore ways in which writing, education (in general) and art education (in particular) might contribute to or help us negotiate class consciousness and cultural barriers. The article discusses ways in which new technologies invite and allow new voices to gain confidence in writing, and also alludes to ‘masks’, ‘imposters’ and ‘imposter syndrome’ (initially nominated as a feminist concern). It attempts to help and to advise aspiring writers by ‘dis-spelling’ myths of writing as transcendent, privileged and thereby socially divisive, and promotes the idea of writing as a material process (no less ‘magical’ for that) open to all. Interestingly, the title of this article alludes to its own word count, and thus the title had to be changed each time the article was edited and as it grew into the approximately 6,000-word essay it is now. As well as being, in this and other ways, self-reflexive and self-conscious, the writing becomes self-deconstructive towards its conclusion, tugging at a certain ‘masc’-ulinity concerning the sources and motivations for the writing and of the author that might otherwise remain masked to the author. This allows the piece to end by extending the implications of a purported écriture feminine to become an encouragement to more and different ‘others’ to find a way, and to find their way, to and through writing, meanwhile expanding on the many ways in which we might deploy a new-found freedom to write according to the model of words as masks, of writing as a masque and of the author as masked.

Écriture féminine de jeunesse et postulation de l’émergence d’un pays dans Lettre à Tita 2 : entre anti-modernisme, exaltation passéiste et quête éthique

Children’s literature is sometimes considered to be the poor relation of literary genres throughout the world, as it is often confined to the rank of literature for the very young. Yet, on closer inspection, does this literature not play an important role in establishing national identity? In other words, does it contribute to the spread of tolerance and therefore to living together? Backed by Pierre Barbéris’ sociocriticism and structured in three parts, this contribution first illustrates the motivations behind the characters’ behavioural imposture; then examines the internal components that articulate the novel’s literality. Finally, the analysis shows that Jeanne Abou’ou’s Lettre à Tita 2, beyond the stigmatization of a poorly assumed modernism or the exaltation of traditional values, deeply encapsulates the writer’s desire to postulate an emerging world in which Cameroonians would readily identify themselves.

Riuen les meduses: cos i desig a la poesia de Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas i Maria-Mercè Marçal

Resum: Aquest article estudia per primera vegada les continuïtats entre la poesia de Maria-Mercè Marçal (1952-1998) i Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas (1921-2009). Específicament, se centra en l’obra poètica publicada en vida de les dues escriptores i que es troba recollida dins Llengua abolida (1973-1988) (1989) de Marçal i Obra poètica (1997) de Sánchez-Cutillas. Encara que les condicions sociohistòriques són diferents entre les dues poetes, en aquest article intentaré demostrar que l’escriptura en totes dues beu directament de la seua experiència vital donada per la posició del seu cos de dona i la interacció intel·lectual amb el llenguatge i els significats culturals heretats. Des d’aquests qüestionaments, en aquest article oferiré una aproximació al contínuum de la problemàtica de la subjectivitat femenina, nucli de la seua obra, des de la interacció entre cos i llenguatge, paràmetres centrals que ocupen els estudis de la diferència sexual, en particular en la teoria denominada écriture féminine desenvolupada per les filòsofes Hélène Cixous i Luce Irigaray. Paraules clau: cos, desig, Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, Maria-Mercè Marçal, écriture féminine Abstract: This article explores for the first time the continuities between the poetry of Maria-Mercè Marçal (1952-1998) and Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas (1921-2009). Particularly, it focuses upon the poetic works published during their lifetime, collected in the volumes Abolished Language (1973-1988) (1989) by Marçal and Poetic Works (1997) by Sánchez-Cutillas. Despite their different socio-historical conditions, in this article I analyse how their vital particular experiences as female subjects become the cornerstone of their writing and how the position of their body interacts with language, consequently challenging their inherited socio-cultural significations. In order to discuss my points, I draw upon the parameters developed by the theoretical framework of écriture féminine developed by philosophers Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray.Keywords: body, desire, Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, Maria-Mercè Marçal, écriture féminine

Twórczość feministyczna a kobieca podmiotowość: ujęcie monstrualne

The article shows the relationship between philosophical thought and feminist art in terms of searching for subjectivity in women’s creations. This is a review of the theories proposed by Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva, and by Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, and Rosi Braidotti, which, as this article proves, manifest themselves in the art that defines itself as feminist. Monstrosity is an important prospect here. The author presents écriture féminine and women’s literature, namely Charlotte Roche’s Wet Places and Izabela Filipiak’s Total Amnesia. Moreover, visual arts by Cindy Sherman, Chili Kumari Burman, Jo Spece, as well as a performance by Carolee Schneemann and ORLAN are discussed.

The World Literature and Women’s Voice in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (2007)

This study seeks to investigate the women’s voice in the world literature depicted by ethnic female authors from African-American and Korean descent. Gaining international recognition in the world literature, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes (1970) and Han Kang’s The Vegetarian (2007) reveal different social-cultural conditions about how women are presented in their respective nation. Morrison presents the life of colored women struggling with racial discrimination in the predominant white society. Meanwhile, Kang employs the symbolic food of meat and vegetarianism to reveal the women’s voice against social conformity. Applying écriture feminine or women’s writing in the analysis, both Toni Morrison and Han Kang scrutinize the stereotypical representation of women as passive, obedient, and lacking. In examining the two works, some steps were done: 1) having close reading towards the text to analyze the representation of women; 2) doing the socio-cultural analysis in connection to the women’s voice; 3) drawing the conclusion about the significance of world literature to the women’s voice. This study finds that the world literature has its significant contribution as the windows for global readers to understand women’s issues portrayed in two different nations. Not only to present women’s voice, ethnic female authors such as Toni Morrison and Han Kang indeed share the local culture through their novels. With this condition, the world literature enables to break the barriers of male Western authors as the center by offering room for female writers from non-Western countries.

Writing into the Open

This Open Space article poetically explores the potential of writing as a transformative practice. The interweaving of analytical and creative registers generates an intertextuality that is influenced by Hélène Cixous’s concept of ‘écriture féminine’. This practice is taken as a methodology and contributes to the article through providing examples of the ways in which different forms of writing are capable of pushing boundaries and, in due course, effecting change. In light of the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, I attempt to illustrate how writing across and through genres and disciplinary boundaries might offer hopeful alternative ways of thinking and being.

Die Bewegung des Anderen in den Schreibszenen von Hélène Cixous

This essay explores the significance of movement and alterity in Hélène Cixous’s practice of writing, which she defines as an »exposure« to the other and as a sensitization to the present moment. The focus is on Cixous’s presentation of different modalities of being that are indissociable from the materiality of ‚écriture féminine‘. These range from the necessity for blindness in the act of writing and the discovery of imaginary worlds, to experiences of flight, sexual difference and modes of »de-selfing« in the process of writing. The transformative event-character of Cixous’s writing is foregrounded in her short story ‚Savoir‘, where the relationship between seeing and not-seeing, presence and absence, knowledge and desire is captured in the fleeting traces of the written word.