Somatization of writing and semiotization of the body : a study of selected texts by English-Canadian feminist writers

Title: Somatization of writing and semiotization of the body : a study of selected texts by English-Canadian feminist writers
Author: Sojka, Eugenia
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2002, vol. 2, iss. [1], pp. 15-26
Extent
15-26
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
This study focuses on the analysis of selected texts by English Canadian feminist writers who are engaged in the conscious process of subverting / carnivalizing the coded discourse of patriarchal culture, which reinforces the heterocentrism, classism, racism and sexism of society. Betsy Warland, Daphne Marlatt, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Gail Scott, Erin Mouré and others challenge the traditional way of writing by deconstructing the linear alphabetical notation and writing a discourse translating the body into a script. Aware of recent development is the feminist discourse, the writers experiment with the translation of various senses of the body into writing. The body translated into writing somatizes the process, while the body itself is being semiotized, read as a linguistic sign or structure. The texts are read as an enactment of female desire, of female economy of language, the economy of plenitude, translated into the never-ending process of the eroticization of language. The rhetoric exploring the visual, the aural, the tactile and the olfactory experience ofthe body is examined here. The writers' penchant for linguistic play is not purely aesthetic. It helps us reflect on languages and the way they shape our thinking and acting in the world.
L'etude analyse plusieurs textes d'auteures féministes anglophones au Canada engagées dans la subversion d'un discours patriarcal qui encode l'hétérocentrisme, le racisme, le sexisme et le statut quo social. Betsy Warland, Daphne Marlatt, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Gail Scott, Erin Mouré parmi d'autres défient l'écriture traditionnelle en déconstruisant la notation alphabétique linéaire pour créer une écriture qui inscrit le corps féminin. Suivant des développements récents du discours féministe, ces auteures transforment en écriture les différents sens du corps. La transformation du corps en écriture est un processus de somatisation, alors que le corps lui-même est transformé en signe et en structure sémiotiques. Les textes se lisent comme l'articulation du désir féminin et de l'économie linguistique féminine. Celle-ci est une économie de la plenitude qui se traduit sans cesse en un processus d'éroticisation du langage. Les textes explorent la rhétorique du visuel, de l'acoustique, du tactile et de l'experience olfactive du corps. Le jeu linguistique chez ces auteures n'est pas seulement esthétique; il nous amène a réfléchir sur le langage et sur son influence sur notre façon de penser et d'agir dans le monde.
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