"Ecriture Féminine" : Sula and A Sister to Scheherazade

Abstract

Examinations of female identity within social contexts have tended to ignore the articulation of female desire and voice which serve to disrupt the phallocentric order in "female-sexed texts" or "true texts of women". Locating the analysis within a feminist theoretical stance, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Sula and A Sister to Scheherazade are versions of "écriture féminine" through linking them to the reconstructive terminology of Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. I suggest that "écriture féminine" can represent a means through which women attempt to disrupt the phallocentric discourse which controls womens works as well as bodies and to provide a new path of reinscription of female identity and sexuality. I use the works of Toni Morrison and Assia Djebar to demonstrate how their writings constitute a site of struggle and resistance, a medium through which they articulate a feminist consciousness, so as to explore female embodied identity which is realized through their struggle against prescribed patriarchal conventions and womens sisterhood. Furthermore, the novels female language which is written through the female body and its libidinal economy is a proponent of "écriture féminine" and indicative of women writers endeavor to establish a distinct female voice.