Rene Magritte Attempting the Impossible A 60s 70s

Rene Magritte “Attempting the Impossible”

當代女性主義研究之重點 A. 60’s -70’s – 女性研究: 女人的 1) 身體 biology 2) 經驗與社會位置 experience and social position 3) 寫作 writing (this and next week) B. 80’s – 性別研究 Gender Studies 1) 權力關係、文化差異 power relations (cultural differences) 2) 性別建構 gender constructions 3) 性取向 sexual orientation

第二波：美國 Radical Feminism: Background and Some Major Views; Feminist Literary Criticism American Psychoanalytic Feminism

其他主要議題： n n 激進同性戀分離主義 Radical lesbian feminist separatist – e. g. Mary Daly, -- Beyond God the Father: attacking Christianity in Boston College, a college run by the Jesuit. -- Pure Lust – calls herself a hag; promotes separatism. --barring men from her classes for 25 years. 性產業：是否禁止 Sex Industry to ban or not to ban? ¨ Pornography, banned or not ¨ Prostitute: freedom to work or exploitation of women's bodies

(III) 精神分析女性主義 American: Nancy Chodorow The Reproduction of Motherhood (an example of object-relations theory) 1. Males: have fixed ego-boundaries (rigid and defensive) because they define themselves through separation from their mother. 2. Females: have fluid and permeable egoboundaries because they never break up their relationship with the mother. This sense of self-in-relationship and need for connection to others in turn underlies the desire to “mother” (be a mother). n

法國女性主義 關鍵字: 1. The realm of the proper (Oedipus complex & fear of castration) vs. the realm of gift 2. Bi-sexuality or self-touching 3. Penus/phallus vs. chora 4. The imaginary, the symbolic and the real

(III)法國女性主義: 陰性書寫 Feminine ecriture n n n 1. Biology feminine writing Against the psychoanalysts’ emphasis on Oedipus complex and the Father. Against seeing woman as Lack. Against the fixity of male writing and systems of thoughts Cixous: phallogocentrism and its binarism ¨ writing from the body; write in white ink; in the Realm of the Gift vs. the Realm of the Proper (property-- appropriate--the fear of castration)

Irigaray autoeroticism; plural sexuality; n an alternate discourse that is multiple, fluid, and heterogeneous n feminine style: 1) mimicry; 2) "self-touching" and "self-affection" – (quote on p. 248: always having “another ‘other meaning’ always in the process of weaving itself, of embracing itself with words, but also of getting rid of words in order not to become fixed. . . ” ) n

Kristeva: the semiotic 符號界 (相對於象徵屆） the feminine as the silence of the unconscious that precedes discourse; n its utterance is a flow or rhythm instead of an ordered statement; 韻律之流而非邏輯 語言 n expression is fluid like the free-floating sea of a womb or the milk of the breast. 表達子 宮之韻律 n

Feminine Writing: an example 夏宇 〈在陣雨之間〉 我正孤獨通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨 通過自己行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己 行星上的曠野我正孤獨通過自己行星 上的曠野 It breaks the tradition of logical, linear writing, a 正孤獨 我正孤獨通過 writing with closure and a central idea. the reader is liberated.

Irigaray: Mimicry + Parody e. g. n Sylvia Sleigh, The Turkish Bath, 1973

Kristeva: the semiotic Emphasize the “pre-Symbolic” (or the languages before social language); n The semiotic: its utterance is a flow or rhythm instead of an ordered statement; n expression is fluid like the free-floating sea of a womb or the milk of the breast. n

Kristeva: the semiotic e. g. 1 n Black Iris III, 1926

Kristeva: the semiotic e. g. 2 n Cunt as Temple, Tomb, Cave or Flower, 1974 Judy Chicago

Kristeva: the semiotic e. g. 3 Pollock, Jackson Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952

Reference: Pollock, Jackson Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 Context: 1. existentialism ("existence precedes essence"); alone in the void (alienation); 2. the Cold War: post-Hiroshima; the Soviet Union gets the bomb in 1949; 3. the 50's beat generation (pushing to the edge of one's consciousness. ) 4. Jungian analysis (the collective unconscious; the archetype; mythic structures embedded in everyone's unconscious). 5. Inspired by jazz improvisation; listened to records by Charlie Parker while he painted. Also influenced by Native American sand painting and the idea that painting could be ritualistic, a rites of passage. (source: http: //www. csulb. edu/~karenk/20 thcwebsite/439 mid/ah 439 mid-Info. 00011. html )

關鍵字：激進女性主義 n n n 父系社會、二元對立 Critiquing Patriarchy 性：性產業除罪化、身體自主權，Bad sex? Good sex? 性/別、雌雄同體、分離主義 Androgyny, Separatism 性別角色: 母性、母職、母親的經驗Motherhood 生物決定論、性別建構論 Does our body determine our sexuality and does our sexuality determine everything else in our lives?

關鍵字： 後女性主義 n n 性/別階級系統sex/gender hierarchy. 機器人主體 Cyborg; 性別為身體風格 gender as corporeal style 酷兒書寫 Definitions of feminist or lesbian writing (do the writers have to be female or lesbian? )

女性文學與批評策略 n n n n 指控 Open accusation; social activism, (e. g. B. Kruger) 分離 Separatism: critique of patriarchy (its sexual/textual politics), discover/focus on women’s writings (gynocriticism), lesbianism (Woman-Identified Woman) 歌頌 Celebrating Female Sexuality and Feminine Writing: French Feminists, 夏宇, 安卓珍妮 賦予權力 Empower female characters(Granny W); Discuss women’s issues (e. g. housekeeping, body, etc. ) ; Atwood; Plath and Virginia Woolf 改寫 Revising tradition: e. g. fairy tales; 夏宇; Atwood 嘲擬Mimicry; Parody; conscious use of dual language (e. g. Cindy Sherman) 妥協、折衝 Compromise: domestication of female desire

女性文學與批評策略 The feminine 女性的 n The feminist 女性主義的 n The female 女人的 n

Conclusion? n n n Not over yet. Nor limited to the academia. Critical attention should be paid to every aspects of our lives, just as ‘feminist’ practice in every moment of decision. Has never been just a political movement for women alone. The discussion of gender categories and identity can be deepened and enriched when the other critical perspectives are added to our discussion.