ABSTRACT
Ever since the publication of “Le Rire de la Méduse,” in 1975, Hélène Cixous’ Medusa has continuously given the slip to critics of “écriture feminine.” Rewriting the horrifying Medusa of a masculist mythology, Cixous creates a laughing Medusa who, in the role of hysteric, resists the male view of her sexuality in becoming incomprehensible, unclassifiable, as one finds her only “in the divide.” Through the image of the Medusa, and in some earlier essays, Cixous writes about a feminine scriptive space where women can learn to approach their own forbidden bodies. The construction of such a femininity has, of course, led to ongoing debates about the “essentializing” tendencies of Cixous’ methods. To engage in one more discussion of the “theoretical” works of Cixous, in 1992, seems at first glance rather anachronistic since Cixous, a prolific writer, has continued to produce a plethora of creative prose and drama which far exceeds her “theoretical” writings from the 1970’s. Because Cixous’ creative fiction remains largely untranslated into English, and because she remains accessible to only a select francophile audience, the critical appraisal of her works presents a perspective that is curiously askew. Even those outside of France who do read Cixous’ other fictional works seem to glean much more out of the essays, perhaps owing to their easier cooptation into critical prose. Despite some of the sharp debates that have emerged in the past two decades, the extent to which feminists are willing to be convinced by the transformational power of “écriture féminine” remains unresolved. For all the above reasons, it would seem appropriate to recapitulate both sides of the debate about “‘écriture féminine” as represented in Cixous’ texts, so that we can move the debate closer to a clear appreciation of the problematic surrounding Cixous’ theories.
