Utopian Relationality: Intercorporeal Subjectivity in French Feminist Fiction
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Date
2022-10-04
Authors
Okumu, Robin
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Feminist fiction has always entertained a delicate relationship with the utopian literary genre since the traditional definition of “utopia” as a perfect but imaginary place runs contrary to feminist struggle for concrete change. My project builds upon the theoretical foundations of recent theorists of feminist utopias, Francis Bartkowski and Lucy Sargisson, by analyzing the novels of three French authors—Monique Wittig, Hélène Cixous, and Marie Darrieussecq, whose texts range from 1969-1985, 1975-1983, and 1996-2005 respectively. I read their fiction as positively and profoundly utopian, through the lens of “utopian relationality:” my own concept that I define and develop as an interpretive framework and methodological tool. Utopian relationality describes a radical way of being-together in the world that acts as a core component of each writer’s feminism. It presents visions of utopia as revitalized intercorporeal relations with the self, the other(s), and the wider world. The connections these authors describe are equally as important as the textual acts of narrating them; my methodology proceeds through detailed close readings that are attentive to their poetic strategies and linguistic experimentation, or the ways they rework language within language. By locating and tracing utopian relationality in their novels, I argue for a reconceptualization of the content, form, and function of their fiction, along with a reinterpretation of the ways the label “utopian” has been applied negatively to Wittig’s and Cixous’ work. Since Darrieussecq has been widely described as a dystopian writer, interpreting utopian moments in her fiction casts her writing in a nuanced light. It also provides an understanding of the ways utopia and dystopia intermingle in her contemporary fiction, as it is representative of a broader 21st century feminist consciousness. Utopian relationality thus enables productive comparative readings of these three different authors, and it lays a foundation for future explorations of feminist fiction.
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Keywords
Cixous, Darrieussecq, Feminism, Relation, Utopia, Wittig