This thesis explores the concept of »feminine writing« at the intersection of philosophy, feminism, and the fringes of popular music. The text begins with Freud’s concept of the sexual difference, continues with Beauvoir’s anti-essentialism and Malabou’s plasticity, and concludes with Cixous and her essay »The Laugh of the Medusa«. I thus first attempted to define the concept of women’s writing through psychoanalytic conceptualization and poststructuralist thought; as a counterpoint, I included Hélène Cixous’s essay The Laugh of the Medusa, in which the author describes »women’s writing« (l’écriture féminine) as something elusive within phallocentric discourse. I then used the concept of »feminine writing« to describe the work of musician Kristin Hayter, who performed under the pseudonym Lingua Ignota. The musician represents one of the interesting examples of the integration of experimental and extreme music into the musical sphere, a field historically dominated by men, while emphasizing that she does not consider her work to be feminist. »Lingua ignota«, among other things, also represents the unknown language of Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century abbess who, as one of the few educated women of her time, developed her own language. To better understand Hayter’s position within the music world, I also drew on the work of musicologist McClary and her book Feminine Endings, sociologist Nina Dragičevič and her book Slavne neznane, and Paul Hegarty’s Annihilating Noise.
|