Bartlett, Alison (1994) Jamming the machinery: écriture féminine and the practice of contemporary women writers in Australia. PhD thesis, James Cook University.

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Abstract

In this thesis I locate intersections between the concerns of contemporary women writers in Australia and écriture féminine, the theories of women's writing developed by French feminists Helene Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva. I have chosen the texts of Ania Walwicz, Margaret Coombs, Fiona Place, Inez Baranay, Susan Hawthorne, Sue Woolfe and Davida Allen, who have all published between 1988 and 1992, to trace the interactions between their practices and theories. Their texts allow me to explore a range of women's issues and feminist analyses, including our positioning in language, the discourses of medicine, psychiatry, health, sexuality, art, romance, economics and maternity. Writing (through) women's bodies emerges as an important practice for refiguring those narratives and for imagining desires and pleasures other than those offered by patriarchal structures. In writing this thesis as a piece of contemporary women's writing and feminist theory, I have sought to apply and enact the theories I use - not only in relation to the texts I examine but also in the text I have produced. As such, I have been concerned to situate my knowledge and to represent myself in my writing, but not as the authoritative voice which might be expected in a doctoral thesis. Instead, I have chosen to orchestrate the multiple voices of the writers, their texts, critics, reviewers, theorists and myself. By interviewing each writer, I have sought to make her voice audible as a critical thinker. By experimenting with the form of my writing, I hope this thesis contributes to the intersections between theory and practice, which offer new reading pleasures and writing desires.

Item ID:	28853
Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	feminist literary criticism; feminism and literature; feminist theory; ecriture feminine; écriture féminine; French feminist writers
Date Deposited:	21 Aug 2013 23:47
FoR Codes:	19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1999 Other Studies in Creative Arts and Writing > 199999 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing not elsewhere classified @ 30% 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200599 Literary Studies not elsewhere classified @ 70%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970119 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of the Creative Arts and Writing @ 100%
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