3 Review(s)

The book reviews the theories of “writing the body” propagated by French feminists such as Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva and proceeds to close textual analyses of the various forms in which the 41 theories find expression in a broad spectrum of writers ranging from the covert praxis of Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, Adele Wiseman and Susan Swan to overt praxis in the works of contemporary writers like Audrey Thomas, Lola Lemire Tostevin and the spiritual poetry of Penn Kemp. The study includes the writings of women of colour like Dionne Brand, Nourbese Philip, Beatrice Culleton, Shani Mootoo and Joy Kogawa, which, apart from questioning the validity of vastly differing experiences of the Male Gaze, consider afresh, colonization of women’s bodies. The study brings together under queer theory’s encompassing umbrella, the challenging works of Daphne Marlatt, Betsy Warland and the eminent writer Nicole Brossard from Quebec.