1. Feminist Reading of Jules & Jim

2. Feminist Literary Theory SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR (1908-1986) n Rebelled against Catholic “bourgeois” parents n Became atheist at age of 14 n Youngest student to pass philosophy exam n Youngest professor of philosophy (21) n “Essential” lover of Sartre (vs. “contingent”) n Reprimanded in Rouen for views on women n Nazis dismissed her from teaching post n Parent complained she was corrupting female student—never taught again The Second Sex

3. Feminist Literary Theory SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR (1908-1986) n Questioned the “othering” of women by Western philosophy n Questioned the underlying phallocentric, Western, rational ideologies n Championed pluralism: gender, sexual, cultural, ethnicity, postcolonial perspectives The Second Sex

4. Feminist Literary Theory SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR (1908-1986) n Existential foundation n The existent must transcend the nothingness of being by choosing to be ethical—in the context of “others” (definition of freedom) n External authority and causes are inauthentic n Rejects the “serious man” (fundamentalists who believe in absolute causes—e.g., Nazis) n Nihilism is not an authentic choice The Second Sex

5. Feminist Literary Theory THE SECOND SEX (1949) n Condemned by the Vatican n Women is defined as the Other by man n Women trapped by Western, phallocentric myths: F Mother, virgin, motherland, nature n “One is not born but rather becomes a woman.” n Social construction of identity n Inauthentic women: F The “Narcissist,” “Women in Love,” and the “Mystic” The Second Sex

6. Feminist Literary Theory POLITICAL FEMINISM n Helped launch the French Women’s Liberation Movement (1970) n Universal childcare n Equal education n Legal abortion n Contraception n Economic freedom and equality n Nuclear family can be damaging (must be chosen actively to avoid becoming a static institution) The Second Sex

7. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) Language Is Us as PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM n Self and identity are social constructions. n Our unconscious is just not inside us. n It is formed by language which is outside us and constructs our sense of self. n Language, our parents, the unconscious, the symbolic order represent the OTHER.

8. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) We Want Our Mothers as PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM n IMAGINARY PHASE: One with mother (Oedipal) F MIRROR STAGE: We recognize a separate being in mirror, feel “lack” for mother; recognition of OTHER but not SELF; birth of the never-fulfilled ego (ideal self-image) n SYMBOLIC (Oedipal crisis): World of language and authority; Father rules; reason and order; unconscious is formed; emergence of desire n REAL: Ultra-conscious experiences that lie beyond Language such as death, terror, ecstasy, love; inexpressible; Kant’s “thing in itself”; the complete unattainable world

9. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) Language Polices Our Instincts as PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM n IMAGINARY: Privileges fantasies and dreams n SYMBOLIC: Tries to make sense of the sensory through cultural authority policeable by the intellect F Father (resolution of Oedipus complex) F Authority F Language F Prohibitions and limitations F Reason

10. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) God the Father is the Word as PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM n Phallogocentric view of life F Male bias of authority F God the Father n We move from the “lost plenitude of the originary mother-infant symbiotic state” to a state dominated by Language and Logos (reason, knowledge, systems of order) n This provokes a sense of desire n Feminists based theories upon Lacan

11. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) The Search for Identity as n Identity crisis: we are in a constant search for the ideal image we project of ourselves n Perennial lack n The adult quest for transcendence—a lost time, lost childhood, the womb, lost paradise n May seek it in the ideal image we impose on others (e.g., via romantic love) n Extreme lack: neurosis and psychosis n Symbolic stage (language, law and authority) should reign in extreme desires n Must accept dynamic interplay of Imaginary & Symbolic

12. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) In Search of Identity as

13. Jacques Lacan (1901-81) Internal Battle of the Sexes as PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM IMAGINARY (feminine) n Mother n Plentitude n Creative n Dreams & fantasies n Illogical n Madness n Holiness n Freedom n Rebellion n Ideal SYMBOLIC (masculine) n Father n Lack and desire n Restrictive authority n Ordered reality n Logic n Controlled sanity n Ritual n Repression n Social conformity n Accepted imperfection

14. Feminist Literary Theory JULIA KRISTEVA (1941-) n Psychologist, linguist & novelist n Influenced by Barthes, Freud & Lacan n Disagrees with “patriarchal” views of Freud and Lacan n Pre-Oedipal maternal body source of semiotic aspect of language n The source of “holiness, poetry and madness” (versus male rationalism) Feminizing Freud

15. Feminist Literary Theory ABJECTION (to throw away; despicable) n Identity is constituted by excluding anything that threatens one's own (or one's group's) borders. n The maternal function is a threat to a woman’s identity. n In a patriarchial society, we are forced to accept out maternal bodies (cannot abject them). n Thus women develop depressive sexuality. n But no need to reject motherhood--just need a new discourse of maternity--and willingness to explore and accept multiple identities. I Am Woman

16. Feminist Literary Theory n Religion, specifically Catholicism (which makes the mother sacred), and science (which reduces the mother to nature) are the only discourses of maternity available to Western culture. Feminizing Freud

17. Feminist Literary Theory n Maternal function cannot be reduced to mother, feminine, or woman. n Kristeva tries to counter-act stereotypes that reduce maternity to nature. n Each one of us is what she calls a subject-in- process--in contrast with traditional notions of an autonomous unified (masculine) subject. Feminizing Freud Source: Kelly Oliver, Virginia Tech

18. Feminist Literary Theory n Masculine symbolic order represses feminine semiotic order n Semiotic open to men and women writers n Semiotic is “creative”--marginal discourse of the avant garde F Raw material of signification from pre-Oedipal drives (linked to mother) F Realm of the subversive forces of madness, holiness and poetry F Creative, unrepressed energy Madness, Holiness & Poetry

19. Feminist Literary Theory n Challenges Judeo-Christian icons of woman. n Multiplicity of female expression n “To break the code, to shatter language, to find specific discourse closer to the body and emotions, to the unnamable repressed by the social contract.” --Kristeva I Am Woman

20. Feminist Literary Theory ALICE JARDINE, Gynesis (1982) n Woman as a binary opposition n Man/woman F Rational/irrational F Good/evil n Implied male logocentricism n The concept of jouissance Binary Equals as

21. Feminist Literary Theory HELENE CIXOUS (1937 - ) n Critic, novelist, playwright n Picks up where Lacan leaves off n Denounces patriarchal binary oppositions n Women enter into the Symbolic Order differently n Deconstructs patriarchal Greek myths n Femininity (jouissance) unrepresentable in phallocentric scheme of things n Favors a “bisexual” view The Joy of Jouissance

22. Feminist Literary Theory n Women are closer to the Imaginary n Women more fluid, less fixed n The individual woman must write herself n Feminine literature: not objective; erase differences between order and chaos, text and speech; inherently deconstructive n Admires Joyce and Poe n Men can produce feminist literature Deconstructing Sigmund as

23. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

24. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

25. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

26. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

27. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

28. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

29. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

30. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

31. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist

32. Catherine in Jules & Jim n Identity defined in relation to men n Rebels against identity society has constructed for her n Abjects maternal & wife roles n Repressed desires n Multiple personalities n Celebrates jouissance n “Poetry, madness & holiness” n A violent feminist