Finally, Helene Cixous was also interested in the feminist analysis of literary texts and she ranks as one of the most important feminist critics of her era. She introduces two main concepts concerning feminist criticism “Ecriture feminine” and The Laugh of the Medusa “Ecriture feminine or feminine writing, is a theory expressing that writing is the product of female physiology that women should celebrate in their writing. Women must write through their bodies and invent a language that will wreck classes, rules, regulations, and codes, laughing at the very idea of silence It is transgressive and rules transcending. In her text The Laugh of the Medusa Cixous compares Medusa to powerful female characters in literary works. In her theory, these powerful women are aware of their power and are not afraid to use it against patriarchal dominance. However, inmost literary texts, these women end up being exiled or persecuted because they are feared. Men prefer women when they are nothing but their weak subordinates and despise anything that defies their authority. All these texts provided ammunition for the women’s liberation movement of the sand bb1970s and are useful starting points for discussions of short stories that take women and the feminine as central concerns. Incidentally Toril Moi also classifies the feminist movement into three phases — the female (biological, the feminist (political) and the feminine (cultural). Feminist theory combines elements of other theoretical models such as psychoanalysis, Marxism, poststructuralism, and deconstruction to interrogate the role of gender in the writing, interpretation, and dissemination of literary texts. Originally concerned with the politics of women’s authorship and representations of women in literature, feminist theory has recently begun to examine ideas of gender and
