NEW ACCENTS General Editor: TERENCE HAWKES Sexual/Textual Politics: · Feminist Literary Theory IN THE SAME SERIES Translation Studies Susan Bassnett-McGuire Critical Practice Catherine Belsey Formalism and Marxism Tony Bennett Sexual Fiction Maurice Charney Alternative Shakespeares ed.john Drakakis Poetry as Discourse Antony Easthope The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama Keir Elam Reading Television John Fiske and john Hartley Literature and Propaganda A. P. Foulkes Linguistics and the Novel Roger Fowler Structuralism and Semiotics Terence Hawkes* Subculture: The meaning of style Dick Hebdige Reception Theory: A critical introduction Robert C. Holub Fantasy: The literature of subversion Rosemary Jackson Deconstruction: Theory and practice Christopher Norris Orality and Literacy Walter}. Ong Science Fiction: Its criticism and teaching Patrick Parrinder Narrative Fiction: Contemporary poetics Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan Metafiction: The theory and practice of self-conscious fiction Patricia Waugh Psychoanalytic Criticism: rfheory in practice Elizabeth Wright Making a Difference: Feminist literary criticism ed. Gayle Greene and Coppelia Kahn Rewriting English:· Cultural politics of gender and class Janet Batsleer, Tony Davies, Rebecca O'Rourke and Chris Weedon The Unusable Past: Theory and the Study of American Literature Russell]. Reising Literature, Politics and Theory: Papers from the Essex Conference 1976-1984 ed. Francis Baker, Peter Hulme, Diana Loxley and Margaret Iversen Popular Fictions: Essays in literature and history ed. Peter Widdowson, Peter Humm and Paul Stigant Criticism in Society lmre Salusinszky The Return of the Reader: Reader-response criticism Elizabeth Freund Superstructuralism: The philosophy of structuralism and poststructuralism Richard Harland *Not available from Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. in the USA Sexual/Textual Poli tics: Feminist Literary Theory TORIL MOI ROUTLEDGE London and New York First published in 1g85 b.J Methuen & Co. Ltd Reprinted 1g86 (three times) and 1g87 Reprinted in 1g88 by Routledge 11 New Fett.er Lane, London ECµ' 4EE 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1g85 Toril Moi Photoset by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk All rights reserved. No part oft his book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writingfrom the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Moi, Toril Sexual-textual politics: feminist literary theory. - {New accents) 1. Criticism - History- 20th century 2. Literature - Woman aut·hors I. Title I I. Series &J9 PNg8.W64 ISBN 0-416-35300-6 ISBN 0-415-02974-0 library of Congress Cataloging i11 Publication Data MoiJ Toril Sexual/textual politics. (New accents) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Feminist literary criticism. I. Title II. Series: New accents (Methuen & Co) PNgB. W64.M65 1g85 8£01 .95' o88o42 85-u428 ISBN 0-416-35300-6 ISBN 0-415-02974-0 Til mamma og pappa Contents General editor's preface XI Preface XIII .. Acknowledgements XVll A note on the text XVIII Introduction: Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? Feminist readings of Woolf The rejection of Woolf 2 Rescuing Woolff or jeminist politics: some points towards an alternative reading 8 PART I : ANGLO-AMERfCAN FEMfNIST CRITICISM 19 Two feminist classics I 21 Kate Millett 24 Mary Ellmann 31 'Images of Women' criticism 2 42 3 Women writing and writing about women 50 Towards a woman-centred perspective 50 'Literary Women' 53 'A Literature of Their Own' 55 'The Mad woman in the Attic' 57 Contents VIII 4 T heoretical reflections 70 Annette Kolodny 70 Elaine Showalter 75 Myrajehlen Bo PART ll: FRENCH FEMINIST THEORY 89 5 From Simone de Beauvoir to Jacques Lacan 91 Simone de Beauvoir and Marxist feminism 91 Fre1,chfeminism after 1968 95 Jacques Lacan 99 6 Helene Cixous: an imaginary utopia 102 Patriarchal binary thought 104 Difference 105 Ecriture feminine 1) masculinity,femininity, bisexuality 108 The gift and the proper 0 I I Ecriture feminine 2) the source and the voice 3 I I Imaginary contradictions 19 I Power, ideology, politics 2 I I 7. Patriarchal reflections: Luce Irigaray's looking-glass 127 Speculum 129 Specul(ariz)ation and mimeticism 31 I Freud 132 Mysticism 1 35 The inexorable logic of the Same 1 37 Womanspeak: a tale told by an idiot? 1 43 Idealism and ahistoricism 1 47 8 Marginality and subversion: Julia Kristeva 150 L 'Etrangere 150 Kristeva and Anglo-American feminist linguistics 151 Sex differences in language use 1 53 Sexism in language 156 Language,femininity revolution 6 1 I I The acquisition of language 6 I I Femininity as marginality 163 Feminism, Marxism, anarchism 167