The Cixousian Woman in Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The Treatment of Bibi Haldar’

Farahbakhsh, Alireza; Bozorgi, Shabnam

doi:10.1179/2051285613z.0000000009

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…When discussing "the feminine" and "the other," the first component that has to be studied is the primary binary division of gender roles and definitions. According to Farahbakhsh and Bozorgi (2013), Cixous sees male/female as the main binary that reproduces patriarchal order, which in turn triggers the birth of other binary oppositions founded in phallocentrism. For this reason, this dyadic structural order limits creativity and rules out different possibilities beyond its framework.…”

Section: The Conceptual Background: Cixous's the Other The Feminine A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Resistance, and Identity: Women’s Rewriting of the Self in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Anuar¹,

Asl²

2022

JSSH

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The image of Indian women has often been associated with the act of obedience and submission. Previous studies on gender and sexuality in India’s literary tradition and culture point to the dominance of heteropatriarchal normativity and the scarcity of the image of a powerful woman capable of contesting and dismantling such impositions. In this study, we argue that Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess (2016) presents a more nuanced image of the Indian women who constantly problematize the mainstream prescriptions of gender roles and boundaries. In pursuit of the argument, this study aims to explore the novel to examine the multiple ways in which the leading female characters contest, negotiate, and reconstruct pre-existing definitions of gender identities. As an analytical framework, we draw upon the poststructuralist feminist Hélène Cixous’s notions of “the feminine,” “the other,” and “écriture féminine” (feminine writing) to shed light on female characters’ struggles against submission to patriarchal discourses. The findings reveal that the three female characters—i.e., Sabitri, Bela, and Tara—resist discourses of masculinity through empowerment in their unique ways: establishing a business, getting a divorce, and having an abortion. Through such practices, the female characters demonstrate the will of both a woman and a mother and a strong sense of love that works as a key factor in their resistance to patriarchy and rewriting identity relations.

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Section: The Conceptual Background: Cixous's the Other The Feminine A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Resistance, and Identity: Women’s Rewriting of the Self in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Anuar¹,

Asl²

2022

JSSH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In other words, écriture féminine is a style of writing that is ever-spreading and ever-continuous in its movement, just like 'living water', persistently challenging the limit with its adaptability and flexibility. It ascertains a space that is ever-expansive and can also be associated with the maternal aspects of feminine excess (Farahbakhsh & Bozorgi, 2013). Cixous stresses that écriture féminine equates feminine subjectivity and abundance to a metaphorical mother, always giving and not barren: "no need for a mother, as long as there is some motherliness: and it is the father, then, who acts the part, who is the mother" (1986, p. 64).…”

Section: The Conceptual Background: Cixous's Inherent Bisexuality and éCriture Fémininementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though the concept of sexual difference that Cixous reflects on is not of anatomical differences but morphological ones, she acknowledges that limiting thinking through sexual difference (i.e. 'man' and 'woman') is inevitable (Farahbakhsh & Bozorgi, 2013). Because of this, Anjum's exclusion from the categorization serves as an advantage from Cixous' standpoint.…”

Section: Resisting Heteropatriarchal Normativitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…She has also loved Zainab strongly as any mother does her child: "Zainab was Anjum's only love" (p. 47). Cixous' écriture féminine is an approach that emphasizes the abundance of feminine desires and validates them as positive forces (Farahbakhsh & Bozorgi, 2013). Based on this, Anjum's decision can be viewed as a result of accumulation and acceptance of her desires to own her identity as a woman and a mother.…”

Section: Redefinition Of the Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender and Sexual Identity in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A Cixousian Analysis of Hijra’s Resistance and Remaking of the Self

Anuar

Asl

2021

JSSH

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Hijra is a distinctive South Asia known for their gender and sexual difference and associated with their transgender and intersex identities. Otherwise known as transwomen, they are traditionally subjected to prejudices and embedded within narratives of exclusion, discrimination, and the subculture. As a result, Hijras are typically perceived as isolated, abject, and passive victims who remain social and economic peripheries. Concerning the stereotypical image of hijras, this study explores Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happinessecriture féminine, this study examines characters’ contestations and alterations of existing definitions of sex and gender. This framework allows for a manifestation of gender flexibility and feminine writing as a tool for self-emancipation. Both protagonists Anjum and Tilo, illustrate that hijras are not predetermined but are formulated in a complex process of a conscious rewriting of the self. While the former character resists heteropatriarchal normativity through her conscious alterations of the phallogocentric structure of her Urdu language, the latter defies societal conventions of family and marriage with unorthodox views and actions that are materialized in the writing of her story.

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Rewriting of Gender and Sexuality in Tanwi Nandini Islam's Bright Lines

Anuar

Asl

2022

Gender, Place, and Identity of South Asian Women

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This chapter seeks to explore the Bangladeshi diasporic writer Tanwi Nandini Islam's debut novel Bright Lines (2015) to study the subtle nuances of (female) identity and sexuality as portrayed through its main characters. The chapter draws upon the poststructuralist feminist Helene Cixous's notions of the feminine, the other, queer intimacy, and l'écriture feminine to explore the various ways in which prescribed definitions of gender and sexuality are contested and reconstructed. The focus on main characters Ella and Maya revealed that female excess and other bisexuality render the rewriting of one's destiny through the body possible. Whereas the former owns himself by forsaking her female body and embodying a male one, the latter owns herself by using her body as a channel of resistance and rebellion against conventional gender expectations. It is concluded that both characters find fulfilment of self by rewriting their gender and sexuality.

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The Cixousian Woman in Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The Treatment of Bibi Haldar’

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Gender, Resistance, and Identity: Women’s Rewriting of the Self in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Gender, Resistance, and Identity: Women’s Rewriting of the Self in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Gender and Sexual Identity in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A Cixousian Analysis of Hijra’s Resistance and Remaking of the Self

Rewriting of Gender and Sexuality in Tanwi Nandini Islam's Bright Lines

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