Women's Body In Le Rire De La Medusa

“Le Rire de la Meduse”, which was written in French in 1975 and published in English the following summer as “The Laugh of the Medusa” became the most influential text by Helen Cixous, a feminist theorist. It became well known in light of Cixous persuading women to use their bodies to communicate instead of staying trapped in their own forms by using language and gestures that does not allow them to express themselves. In this essay, we would see the importance of women’s body in Imtiaz Dharkers’ and Kyla Pashas’ poetry and how it connects with what Cixous puts forth. She essentially insists that there is a feminine way of writing which can be accessed through a rekindling of the female body that can lead to abolishment of pervasive phallogocentrism and thus lead to new ways of thinking and living. From the first paragraph onwards, women’s writing is sited as both redemptive and dominant. This is what Dharker and Pasha do by writing poems which urge women to reclaim their bodies through writing and, by extension, their desires and identities.

However there is one key difference in how Cixous uses the image of Medusa. Cixous’s Medusa laughs, which is both a joyful and a disruptive act that can lead to new directions for women’s (feminist) writing. In Pasha’s “High Noon and the Body”, the poet feels that her body does not belong to her. The poet gets angry at those women who change themselves for society; she feels that women should give her body and mind the highest priority and use it to communicate whatever they want with the world. She should write, take part in activities that are fun to her and boosts her confidence while questioning and shattering traditions. She is tired of her body doing things which she doesn’t really desires. The woman in the poem too tried fitting in the society; she tried finding happiness through modern day patriarchal values by connecting to God, forging values and feelings, singing praises and wearing symbol of God on her neck through chain. But these did not bring forth any connection and appreciation to her because she was not discussing her femininity with other women. As soon as she starts doing things that please her including wearing an idol of a drumming woman on her neck, she has not slouched her shoulders since because “because this is the invention of a new insurgent writing which, when the moment of her liberation has come, will allow her to carry out the indispensable ruptures and transformations in her history” (880). When a women’s focus turns to her body and listening to people who understand the experience of womanhood, she starts believing in herself, there is more connection and stability and this gives her the confidence to write her own future in her own terms. Essentially, Cixous calls upon women to assert themselves in writing and in the world by leaving their literary imprint, and she speaks in terms