Writing War and Feminine Discourse

Writing War and Feminine Discourse

Mesihovic, Alisa

The main aim of this paper is to prove that feministic discourse related to war, is the best example that there is still enough space for debates whether it is necessary to separate feminine writing from ―traditional/masculine style― and that the feminist critique of a language is absolutely necessary segment of contemporary discourse analysis. Feminine writing is the term presented by French philosopher and writer, Helene Cixous who claims that women write/rewrite signs inscribed in their bodies, but she also explains that this style is not reserved exclusively for women, that men can also write feminine. Following above mentioned theory, this paper is using writing styles of two Bosnian artists, one writer and one film director, who both described the most painful and violent stories using non-violent language, and who managed to show the reality of war perceived by woman without using any aggressive or offensive discourse. Even though I do believe that there is no such thing as essential womanhood, common to all women repressed by patriarchy, the aim of this paper is show that feministic war discourse is exactly the place where class, origin, race and all other differences, are utterly minimized among all women around the world.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

694