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Literary Criticism Canadian

Mothers of Invention

Feminist Authors and Experimental Fiction in France and Quebec

by (author) Miléna Santoro

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Jun 2002
Category
Canadian, Feminist
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780773524873
    Publish Date
    Feb 2003
    List Price
    $37.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773570269
    Publish Date
    Jun 2002
    List Price
    $34.95

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Description

Santoro elucidates notoriously difficult works by the four "mothers of invention" studied - Cixous and Hyvrard from France, and Gagnon and Brossard from Quebec - showing how the rethinking of images associated with femininity and motherhood, a disruptive approach to language, and a subversive relation to novelistic conventions characterize these writers' search for a writing that will best express women's desires and dreams. Mothers of Invention situates such ideologically motivated textual practices within the avant-garde tradition, even as it suggests how women's experimental writings collectively transform our understanding of that tradition. Santoro makes clear the shared ethical and aesthetic commitments that nourished a transatlantic community whose contribution to mainstream literature and cultural productions, including postmodernism, is still being felt today.

About the author

Miléna Santoro is professor at Georgetown University.

Miléna Santoro's profile page