Medusa Re(CUT): CUT and Cixous as Contemporary Écriture Féminine

• Author / Creator

  Chrystian, Tonya Rae

• The following is an analysis of Emmanuelle Marie’s 2003 play CUT as it intersects the theories of Hélène Cixous’ “écriture féminine" primarily expressed through her essays “The Laugh of the Medusa” and “Sorties.” This paper will additionally present an overview to feminine writing along with a defence of Cixous and all feminine texts against their historical critiques. The first chapter is a theoretical overview of Cixous’ theory of écriture féminine and its approach to subjectivity, language, and corporeality; this first chapter will also address the objections of essentialism, utopianism, and dualism with which Cixous has been historically charged, defending the status of the written text in contemporary feminist drama. Chapter two is a textual analysis, seeking to observe instances and approaches to feminine writing in Marie’s textual strategies, focusing on the possibilities of subversive language that CUT offers. The third chapter focuses on the body, revisiting the location of the body in feminine writing and as it explored within CUT, again pertaining to Cixous’ theories. In addressing both the written text and its corporeality through the locus of CUT, this research seeks to find location for Marie’s play in the landscape of contemporary feminine writing and theatre, maintaining the status of the written text while interrogating the psycho-social representations of feminine subjectivity in contemporary feminist theatre.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Cixous
  • Drama
  • Écriture
  • Marie
  • Text
  • Feminism

• Graduation date

  Fall 2016

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3K35MQ79

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.