Following the Traces of Feminine Writing in Adrienne Rich’s Poems

Nodeh Soghra,Pourgiv Farideh

doi:10.9744/kata.18.2.33-41

Abstract

The phallogocentric structure of language privileges the male in construction of meaning throughout the patriarchal history which allows no place for feminine writing. Opposing what Lacan calls as phallogocentric discourse, poststructuralist feminists exhort to what Cixous terms as “ecriture feminine” as the inscription of female difference in language and text. Therefore, viewing women's difference as a source (of imagery) rather than a point of inferiority to men, Rich rediscovers female experiences in her poems through using “ecriture feminine” and thus exhibits the productivity and plurality of women’s language. Hence, the present study, looking from the perspective of Cixous’s “ecriture feminine,” aims at analyzing female modes of writing in Rich’s poems. The main finding of the research is that, through using genuine female forms of expression as opposed to phallogocentric structure of expression, Rich brings into being the symbolic weight of female consciousness, illustrating the oppressive forces that obstruct female expression.

Highlights

There is a close interrelationship between the world of poetry and the real world outside, especially in the case of women‟s writings
Looking from the perspective of Cixous‟s “écriture feminine” as opposed to Lacan‟s phallogocentrism, the present study aims at analyzing the female modes of writing and expression in the poems of Adrienne
Feeling the need to write of their own female experiences, the feminist writers like Rich aspire for a feminine mode of writing and language that stands against the “oppressor‟s language” and allows women to give word to their private experiences through ecriture feminine as opposed to the established phallogocentric structure of language

Summary

Introduction

There is a close interrelationship between the world of poetry and the real world outside, especially in the case of women‟s writings. Poetry for women represents the experience and the oppressions which they have undergone throughout history. One can trace the patterns and phases of the evolution of female tradition, which is parallel to the phases of the development of any “subcultural art”, through which one can “challenge the periodicity of orthodox literary history, and its enshrined canons of achievement” Having gone down to the depths of the wreck of the civilization, brought about by the non-inclusive male myth, and having tried to stand against the orthodox literary traditions which are mostly masculine and to create a new female myth and mode of writing, female writers like Rich turn to a better ways of knowing, that is, a totally female mode of expression

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion