Ceca n’est pas une Femme—20th
C. French Feminist Theory
Ceca n’est past une femme . . .“This is not a woman”.
The misrepresentation of women, suggested in the title of this course, was what 20th C. French feminism–most active shortly after 2nd wave Anglo-American feminism–concerned itself with. It questioned how women had been “defined” for centuries: in the texts of patriarchal philosophies, psychology, politics, and, of course, literature.
Starting with
Simone de Beauvoir’s germinal text, The
Second Sex, which questions the immanence/transcendence binary women
confronted in then current existentialist theory, students in this course will trace the
trends of French feminist thought through its philosophical, psychological,
political and literary articulations.
Luce Irigaray
and Julia Kristeva will be studied in their interrogations of Freudian and
Lacanian theories of women’s subjectivity, and the relationship of women to
language. Alternative constructions of women
as subjects and new possibilities of their participation in the realm of
signification will be introduced in Helene Cixous’ concept of feministe écriture(writing by women).
Finally, the
breadth of influence of French feminist theory on women’s literature will be demonstrated
in the works of lesbian writer, Monique Wittig and Brazilian writer Clarice
Lispector. Wittig’s work will illustrate
the significance of gender alternatives, power and jouissance
in French feminist-influenced writing, and Lispector’s short stories will provide
early samples of French feminist theory in the representation of women’s
culturally-constructed roles and contested agency in feminism as a global
phenomenon.
Course Work
Two
mid-length essays (each 6 pages minimum)—30 % of grade
Small
group presentation—15% of grade
Final
research paper (10 pages minimum)—25% of grade
Bi-weekly
Laulima blogs—20% of grade
Attendance
and participation—10 % of grade
Text
Course Reader with selections
from
Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex
Helene Cixous’ Sorties and The Laugh of the Medusa
Julia Kristeva’s Stabat Mater
Luce Irigaray’s The Sex Which Is Not One
Toril Moi’s Sexual/Textual Politics
Jacques Lacan’s
Écrits
Monique Wittig’s “One is Not
Born a Woman”
Excerpts from Clarise Lispector’s Family Ties.