File spoon-archives/french-feminism.archive/french-fem_1995/french-fem_May.95, message 16


Date: Sat, 13 May 1995 10:29:11 -0500
From: bev-AT-MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU (beverly randall)
Subject: Irigaray & Piano


Sherry,
This is a really interesting topic. Without too much investigation my
reaction is that Ada, in the end of the film, gets happiness, love, her man
and language all wrapped up together. My memory could fail me, but if this
is the case then it strikes me that "feminine" corporal language is once
again not enough, not good enough for socially acceptable communication. I
agree that Ada's abstention from spoken language functions subversively
during most of the film and serves her to gain some kind of freedom.
However, her "freedom" is what I question. Ada makes the choice not to
drown, but to enter language/life. Is this not a valorisation of some kind
of necessity of the masculine, of masculine language, to survive?

Like I said these comments are just what comes immediately to mind. Linda
Lopez McAlister has reviewed _The Piano_ in her "oeuvre" of women's studies
film reviews. If you have WWW you can get there by this URL,
gopher://gopher.inform.umd.edu/11/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/FilmReviews

Obviously this is a gopher site so you can get there through the gopher as
well. I haven't read the review but I will be looking into it now.

Beverly

One 5/13/95 Sherry Linkon wrote:

>OK -- I haven't been on this list all that long, so maybe this has been
>done and I missed it, but I'm working on an article applying Cixous and
>Irigaray to Jane Campion's _Piano_, reading Ada's uses of language and
>the languages of the body that she creates, but also seeing there some
>suggestions of the limitations of alternative and marginalized forms of
>language.  I'd be curious to hear from folks on this list about how you
>see this -- also, if you've seen any critical articles that use this
>approach, let me know.
>
>Thanks--
>
>Sherry Linkon
>YoungstownState
>sjlinkon-AT-cc.ysu.edu

Beverly Randall
bev-AT-mail.utexas.edu
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifca335/index.html



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