Bodies and signs: inscriptions of femininity in John Coetzee and Wilma Stockenstrom

Abstract

What is the relation between sign and body in French feminism, as proposed by, for example, Helene Cixous and Julia Kristeva? Even in ostensibly feminist discourses, the body has been read as the fixed reference of any utterance, but French feminism forces us to consider the body - and specifically the female body - itself as always and already a sign: source of all metaphors in Cixous, a stubborn residue after signification in Kristeva. It is possible then, to read inscriptions of femininity in avant-garde texts, regardless of the actual gender of their authors. John Coetzee's In the Heart of the Country and Wilma Stockenstrom's The Expedition to the Baobab Tree are exemplary explorations of textual femininity that is inscribed in silences, gaps, or pure sounds, elements that are marginal to any authoritative, transparent discourse. The feminine is another language within the language of representation and symbolisation: both In the Heart of the Country and The Expedition to the Baobab Tree foreground the otherness of language, and the problem of translation. What is finally at stake is a strategy of reading which refuses to assign any meaning to "woman".

Opsomming
Wat is die verhouding tussen teken en liggaam in Franse feminisme, soos voorgestel deur byvoorbeeld Helene Cixous en Julia Kristeva? Selfs in oenskynlik feministiese diskoerse word die liggaam gelees as die vasgestelde verwysing van enige uiting, maar Franse feminisme dwing ons om die liggaam - en juis die vroulike liggaam - as altyd en al reeds 'n teken te beskou. Vir Cixous is dit 'n bron van alle metafore; vir Kristeva is dit 'n oorblyfsel na die betekenisproses. Dit is dan moontlik om inskripsies van le feminin in avant-garde tekste te lees, ongeag die werklike geslag van hul skrywers. John Coetzee se In the Heart of the Country en Wilma Stockenstrom se Die Kremetartekspedisie is uitmuntende verken­nings van 'n tekstuele vroulikheid wat in stiltes, onderbrekings en suiwer klanke ingeskryf is. Hierdie elemente is randelemente van enige deursigtige, gesaghebbende diskoers. Le feminin is dus 'n ander taal binne die taal van simbolisering en representasie. Seide In the Heart of the Country en Die Kremetartekspedisie let op die andersoortigheid van taal, en die moeilikhede van vertaling. Wat op die spel is, is 'n leesstrategie wat weier om enige betekenis aan "vrou" te heg.