Écriture féminine and Cixous "Voice-Cry" in Marcelle Brisson's Plus jamais l'amour éternel and Daphne Marlatt's Ana Historic

Abstract

This thesis proposes a study of Hélène Cixous' theory of écriture féminine as applied to two novels, Plus jamais l'amour éternel by Marcelle Brisson and Ana Historic by Daphne Marlatt. It also aims to identify and elaborate Cixous' concept of a 'voice-cry', developed in her theoretical essay entitled La jeune née. Essential to Cixous' theory of an écriture féminine is a feminine libidinal economy which manifests itself in both genders as a form of 'dépense', a giving or 'life-giving' force within the text. It consists of drives and pulsions which challenge traditional grammatical and narrative structures and disrupt the linear trajectory and univocal authority of conventional discourses. Cixous' theory of a libidinal economy is often misinterpreted as an example of a biological essentialism because it recognises the feminine body as site and source of a potent energy which feeds the Imaginary. The Imaginary, banished from the dominant masculine Symbolic, and long repressed, is deprived of space in which to express its depth and diversity. It is within écriture féminine that the difference of the other is given free range to articulate and communicate its presence, and thus the body acknowledged as a prime factor in the elaboration of difference."--Résumé abrégé par UMI.