The Menstrual Imaginary in Literature

This book draws on literary, cultural, and critical examples forming a menstrual imaginarya body of work by women writers and poets that builds up a concept of women's creativity in an effort to overturn menstrual prejudice. The text addresses key arbiters of the menstrual imaginary in a series of letters, including Sylvia Plath the initiator of 'the blood jet', Hélène Cixous the pioneer of a conceptual red ink and the volcanic unconscious, and Luce Irigaray the inaugurator of women's artistic process relative to a vital flow of desire based in sexual difference. The text also undertakes provocative against-the-grain re-readings of the Medusa, the Sphinx, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Red Shoes, as a means of affirmatively and poetically re-imagining a woman's flow. Natalie Rose Dyer argues for re-envisioning menstrual bleeding and creativity in reaction and resistance to ongoing andproblematic societal views of menstruation.

Highlights contemporary feminist scholarship and activism as well as the various treatments of menstruation among critical theorists Unites critical menstrual studies with literary studies Argues for re-envisioning menstruation and creativity in reaction to ongoing inequities surrounding menstruation

Autorentext

Natalie Rose Dyer teaches creative writing and literary studies at Deakin University, Australia. Her poetry and essays appear in literary journals such as Meanjin Quarterly, Australian Poetry, Cordite Poetry Review, Mascara Literary Review, The University of Canberra Vice-chancellors International Poetry Prize Anthologies, The Chiron Review, The Wisconsin Review, and more.

Inhalt
Part I: What is the Menstrual Imaginary?.- Introduction: Want to Start a Pussy Riot?.- Chapter One: Revisioning the Wild Zone.- Chapter Two: Dear Sylvia; The Blood Jet is Poetry.- Part II: The Menstrual Imaginary Against-the-Grain.- Chapter Three: Dear Hélène; White Ink vs Red Ink?.- Chapter Four: Dear Julia; Writing Beyond Abjection.- Chapter Five: Dear Luce; An/Other Becoming Woman.- Part IV: Re-Imagined and New Menstrual Tales.- Chapter Six: Dear Marlene; Re-Telling The Red Shoes.- Chapter Seven: New Menstrual Tales; The Vulva Ring.- Conclusion: The Menstrual Future.<p