Documents found
-
262.
-
268.
-
269.
-
270.More information
“We will show them our sexts!” Ever since Hélène Cixous's battle cry in “The Laugh of the Medusa” (1975), female writers and filmmakers have set about doing just that. Dealing with such subversive and sexually explicit topics as sadomasochistic practices, partner-swapping, prostitution, rape and incest, they have tended to emphasize first and foremost the importance of self-expression and the need to break the silence surrounding women's most diverse sexual experiences. Despite accusations of narcissism and exhibitionism which are sometimes levelled against them, these works are commonly hailed as bold signs of women's coming to voice and of their collective emancipation from heteronormative patriarchy. The works discussed in this article, Nelly Arcan's Putain and Anne F. Garréta's Pas un jour, take issue with these assumptions. Whilst initially masquerading as “confessional” works, these texts seek to challenge the premises of the confessional genre. Their position chimes with Michel Foucault's claim in The History of Sexuality, namely that sexuality in the modern age, rather than being subject to censorship and repression, has in fact produced a “veritable discursive explosion.” We are, it would seem, constantly compelled to speak about sex, the irony of such an imperative being that we conceive of it as a form of liberation. Arcan and Garréta call on us to question whether the current trend of confessional writing by women and its emphasis on disclosure does not constitute yet another form of coercion. Focusing here on two central motifs—scandalous repetition in Arcan, ironic detachment in Garréta—I examine some of the key strategies mobilized in their “anti-confessions.”