Radstone, Susannah (1989) The women's room : women and the confessional mode. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis analyses the cultural work performed by
confessional discourses. It contributes to feminist
cultural theory by refining and extending the Foucauldian
theory of confession through a comparison of the
cultural instrumentality of the mainstream, male-authored
confession and women's versions of the mode.
The thesis begins by arguing that though the mainstream,
male-authored confession constructs and addresses a
mutable subject suited to the requirements of modern
power techniques, the polyvalence of confessional
discourse also registers a resistance to subjection to
contemporary forms of power/knowledge.
The second section of the thesis extends and refines this
argument by contending that the gynocentric deployment of
confession by the woman's confessional novel produces a
double-voiced discourse, which mutedly resists
patriarchal forms of femininity. The application of
psycho-analytic literary theory to a close reading of
Marilyn French's The Women's Room leads to the conclusion
that this novel's deployment of confessional discourse
allows for a muted venting of repressed active female
desire.
The third section of the thesis extends the preceding
examination of the cultural work performed by gynocentric
confessional discourse through an analysis of the madefor-
TV-movie version of French's The Women's Room. This
section argues that that though the application of a film
studies and a TV studies approach to the movie appears to
produce two contradictory readings of it s cultural
instrumentality, this divergence results from the
different emphases of film and TV theory: while film
theory emphasises text at the expense of context, TV
theory tends to reverse this trend.
In conclusion, the thesis argues that discourse theory
points the way towards a perspective which can address
the relationship between textual and social subjects.
This thesis examines the textual negotiation of
confessional discourse by gynocentric forms; it also
points towards the need for a perspective which can more
adequately address the question of reception as
negotiation.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman P Language and Literature > PS American literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	French, Marilyn, 1929-2009. Women's room -- Criticism and interpretation, Confession in literature, Feminism and literature
Official Date:	September 1989
Dates:	Date Event September 1989 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Film and Television Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Extent:	390 leaves
Language:	eng

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