Pushing the dichotomies : specularising Djuna Barnes’s nightwood, through the lens of Luce Irigaray

Abstract

“I felt something akin to the possibility of a different discovery of myself” Irigaray, Elemental Passions.

Irigaray’s quotation shines light on the area her works deals with: rediscovering the woman as a subject, devoid from any assimilation to male or masculine history. She demands for a new language to articulate the Feminine and critiques the Western masculine discourse of sex, gender and women. Her writings have placed her in the category of being a postmodern feminist writer, as she takes a step beyond modern feminist writers to explore the psychology, linguistics and body of the Woman. Writers who come under the title “Postmodern feminists” are defined as being critical of “modern intellectual and social traditions” as they “problematize and question the assumptions of modern feminism” (Flynn, 13) She, together with other writers who wrote during her time, argue that women, feeling, sensing, behaving and desiring differently from men is not because of an anatomical difference but rather a social construct. She believes that discourse too plays a major role in restricting and confining women to the place they are at. Therefore, if women want to achieve ‘salvation’ from the male dominance and language, we need to move beyond-maybe even break away from-the works of the modern feminist writers who remain bounded to the masculine discourse.