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The Laugh Of The Medusa Analysis

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“They riveted us between two horrifying myths: between the Medusa and the abyss.” (Cixous, 1976)
In her essay The Laugh of the Medusa, Hélène Cixous explores the history of feminine sex, how it evolved and how women discovered to become women, to tear away from the male ideology and representation of the feminine, and to regain power by themselves for themselves. It was only in the past century, that women rioted against the male predominance over them so strongly a movement formed out of it: feminism. Until then, as Cixous characterises we, women, were “Old Women” and the revolution brought on a new woman, not afraid to explore herself, put herself first and aim for the stars. Through two texts, a play by Tom Stoppard Arcadia and a poem A comprehensive list of regrets by a young female poet of colour Azra Tabassum, I shall explore the idea of women through time and culture, theorized in Cixous’ essay, and write it as it is, through eyes of a young woman living in 21st century and a male writer from the 20th century, how each of them perceive what it means to be a woman in …show more content…

It 's what happened to the Enlightenment, isn 't it? A century of intellectual rigour turned in on itself. A mind in chaos suspected of genius. In a setting of cheap thrills and false emotion. The history of the garden says it all, beautifully. There 's an engraving of Sidley Park in 1730 that makes you want to weep. Paradise in the age of reason. By 1760 everything had gone - the topiary, pools and terraces, fountains, an avenue of limes - the whole sublime geometry was ploughed under by Capability Brown. The grass went from the doorstep to the horizon and the best box hedge in Derbyshire was dug up for the ha-ha so that the fools could pretend they were living in God 's countryside. And then Richard Noakes came in to bring God up to date. By the time he 'd finished it looked like this (the sketch book). The decline from thinking to feeling, you

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