The Female Libidinal Economy and Écriture Féminine in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway

• Main Authors: Hui-chun Wu, 吳惠君
• Other Authors: Hsiao-chen Chiang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/79206606632987364354

碩士 === 國立彰化師範大學 === 英語學系 === 90 === In my MA thesis, I will provide an overall introduction of the French feminist theories on woman’s libido and her language in the first chapter. The psychoanalytic and linguistic viewpoints will be developed into separate chapters. After the examination of the theoretical framework, I’ll conduct an application of the French concepts to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. In this chapter of textual analysis, I’ll elaborate that the style, theme and spirit of this modern novel correspond a great deal to the ideal of a feminine poetics, namely the écriture féminine proposed by Hélène Cixous. Lastly, in the concluding part of this thesis, I’ll provide an overall evaluation and critique of the French feminist theories, and most important of all, their applicability to a literary text like Mrs Dalloway. In short, I devote this thesis to the elaboration of an alternative way of reading, and above all, a different possibility of relating to love, to the other, and to the world. In the process of reading/writing a feminine text, we are fashioning a postmodern subjectivity, which is capable of heterogeneity, fluidity and openness. By so doing, we might break away from the patriarchal death-dealing games, and embrace life more fully in its pure plenitude.