Writing Vulnerability: Instructing, Conversing, Silencing

Abstract

This chapter explores the idea of vulnerability through women writing about, on behalf of, and with, men through the lens of Cixous’s Coming to Writing and Spivak’s notion of ‘speaking with’ which she explicates in ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’. I examine different variations of ‘speaking with’ in the chapter, as well as the original association with the subaltern. I focus on Diome’s and Djebar’s relationships with their father (figure) who is the source of knowledge and does not adhere to patriarchal values denying education and success to women. In their stories of father-daughter filiation, Djebar and Diome portray their father (figure) as a deeply loving man who is oppressed by traditions and society. In the second section, the form which Chen (epistolary) and Diome (telephone conversations) utilize to write their texts unveils their intention to create a form of equal conversation between lovers and siblings, thereby giving another dimension to the notion of ‘speaking with’. In the final section, I discuss the silences which are present in the text, which far from being detrimental to the relationships between women and men, allow for a re-conceptualization of silence and intimating as revelatory processes in women’s writing about men.