EMILIA-AMALIA SESSION V:
ALIEN LANGUAGE
Thursday, 13 October 2016, 6–9 PM

The fifth session of EMILIA-AMALIA, led by local artist Annie MacDonell and French artist Maïder Fortuné, returns once again to writing, autobiography and self-narration, practices which have been at the centre of MacDonell and Fortuné’s recent collaborative projects.

Beginning with a discussion of Helen Cixous’s text “Coming to Writing” (provided in advance of the session), the session examines the pressing and imperative need for women’s writing, which Cixous describes as emanating at once from the body and from the margins of society and language itself.

After discussing Cixous’ text, we’ll look to examples of writing that push at the edges of the legible, the acceptable and the logical. Participants are asked to bring in and share examples of writing that falls into this broad and expandable category. We’ll provide some relevant excerpts as well. We’ll read writing and watch films from Ulrike Meinhof, Jamaica Kincaid, Kathy Acker, Sarah Kane, Carla Lonzi, Liz Rhodes and Hannah Black.

These texts will serve as a springboard for a series of short experimental writing exercises.

Text: “Coming to Writing,” Helene Cixous, 1976

Conversation: Is écriture feminine possible? Can writing exists outside the patriarchal system?

Writing Activity: Writing to pull apart and provoke