Strange body bedfellows: Écriture féminine and the poetics of trans-trauma

Abstract

Écriture féminine (the 'feminine' and revolutionary writing posited by theorists such as Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva) and 'traumatic' writing have each been positioned as attempts to liberate the unconscious and speak the unspeakable. However, they don't necessarily amount to the same thing simply because they privilege the articulation of repressed material, taboo subjects or unconventional narrative. This article interrogates the notion of feminine writing and proposes a poetics of trauma, exploring their common ground and relationship as highly somatic and affective forms of writing, as well as the ways they may critically differ; the nature of traumatic memory, its tendency to surface as repetition, its particular temporality, and its preoccupation with historical and generational shame distinguish it from écriture féminine. Here I argue that while the poetics of transgenerational trauma qualifies as écriture féminine, the reverse does not necessarily hold true. Further, I suggest the poetics of trans-trauma illuminates the processes of transmission and the cultural conditions and collective trauma associated with it, thereby becoming writing as a social force and political import.