Abstract
The aim of this article is to analyze the points of contact between Helene Cixous's feminist theories and the postcolonial postulates by prominent voices such as Franzt Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, and Stuart Hall, among others. In particular, I will demonstrate how this French feminist is confronted by a similar dilemma to the one experienced by these postcolonial theorists, what I have called the modernist/postmodernist debate. On the one hand, Cixous's emancipatory force is grounded precisely in the very modernist category woman with essentialist implications; on the other hand, she tries to avoid the perpetuation of oppressive structures by envisaging new forms of resistance that overcome the Western patriarchal binary thought. Like Said, Bhabha, and Spivak, this French feminist critic is deeply influenced by postmodernism and poststructuralism. Although she will find problems when ultimately undermining the very oppositional polarity between masculinity and femininity, her critique of the paradigm of binary thought links their theories with the deconstructive moves of postcolonial theory. I will show how this feminist theorist coincides with Bhabha, Said and Spivak when advocating hybridity, boundary crossing, and fluidity as the best option to adopt for the (postcolonial) gendered subject.
Highlights
Aunque el desarrollo de la crítica feminista ha demostrado sorprendentes similitudes con la evolución de la teoría postcolonial, no ha sido hasta estas últimas décadas que las intersecciones entre estos dos movimientos han sido estudiadas.[1]
Cixous intenta constantemente desprenderse de cualquier determinismo biológico, en su deseo por evitar la perpetuación de las estructuras binarias (y hegemónicas) del pensamiento patriarcal
Dicho mérito también se le puede otorgar a Albert Memmi, quien cinco años más tarde lleva a cabo en The Colonizer and the Colonized un análisis muy similar del binomio «self»/«other» sobre el que se basa la ideología colonial.[15]
Summary
Aunque el desarrollo de la crítica feminista ha demostrado sorprendentes similitudes con la evolución de la teoría postcolonial, no ha sido hasta estas últimas décadas que las intersecciones entre estos dos movimientos han sido estudiadas.[1]. Dicha asociación se observa claramente en ensayos tan conocidos como «The Laugh of the Medusa», donde Hélène Cixous nos describe el cuerpo feminino como un territorio colonizado: «as soon as women begin to speak they’re taught that their territory is black; because you are Africa, you are black, your continent is dark. Cixous visualiza a la mujer como un continente oscuro que puede ser penetrado, violado y colonizado, a partir de un proceso similar al experimentado por África o América. CIXOUS, Hélène: «The Laugh of the Medusa», en Elaine Marks y Isabelle de Courtivron (comp.): New French Feminisms.
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