From the Lacanian Jouissance to the Écriture Féminine: Hysterization of the Word in Hélène Cixous

Authors

  • Maider Tornos Urzainki Universitat de Barcelona

Keywords:

Hysteria, woman as ‘not-all’, écriture féminine, supplementary jouissance

Abstract

Historically, within hegemonic thought, women have exclusively been conceived as diseased beings. From medical-scientific discourse, hysteria serves to discredit the female body —its sex, its jouissance—, whose irreverent drives become intolerable for the bourgeoise morality of the capitalist system. Even though Lacanian psychoanalytic theory relies on a masculine perspective that conceives of and discredits the female body as one at fault, it will generate a lot of interest in French feminist circles. Reappropriating the position of woman as ‘not-all’ and speaking from outside the phallo/logo-centric system, the écriture féminineof the ‘70s will use the supplementary jouissancetheorized by Lacan to make evident the violence that is practiced by hegemonic discourse.
Lectora 20

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How to Cite

[1]
Tornos Urzainki, M. 2014. From the Lacanian Jouissance to the Écriture Féminine: Hysterization of the Word in Hélène Cixous. Lectora: Journal of Women and Textuality. 20 (Oct. 2014), 175–190.

Issue

No. 20 (2014): The Figure of "the Neighbor" in 19th Century Literature

Section

VARIA

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