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Teachers' Resource Web Study Questions on Helene Cixous "The Laugh of the Medusa" (1975) 1. Why does Cixous begin her essay (2039-41) by connecting writing strongly with female sexuality? Also, point out a passage or two in later pages where she returns to this theme. 2. Cixous' opening references to sexuality have made some label her essay "essentialist"--i.e. dependent on supposedly biological facts of life to prop up her claims. Is there another way to interpret her many references to the female body? How might one argue that Cixous is not actually, or at least not finally, privileging the female body in the most literal way? 2. On 2042-43, how does Cixous characterize the writing marked as "male"? How does she define writing more generally at this point in her essay? 3. On 2043-44, Cixous says that women must "write themselves," but she also emphasizes "seizing the occasion to speak." What, then, is special about a woman's speaking as opposed to a man's? Also, what kind of link does Cixous make between speaking and writing? 4. On 2047, what does Cixous appear to mean by her term "bisexuality" in connection with writing? 5. In what ways, according to Cixous from 2048-49, are women stronger than men? 6. At what points in her essay does Cixous fight against the implication that woman is to be defined by the term "lack," as she so often is in psychoanalysis? Please find two or three passages where she does this. 7. A general question: how would you characterize Cixous' prose style? Does it illustrate the kind of writing she calls for? How is Cixous' essay itself "the laugh of the Medusa"? Why is it significant that the Medusa is laughing? 8. Does Cixous offer practical suggestions for women's advancement in the world? What kind of political and social change does she appear to call for, and what is the role of women (and possibly men) in effecting that change? What is the essay's rhetorical purpose? *Edition: The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 1st. edition. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch et al. New York: Norton, 2001.
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