Enjoy Their Symptom: Of Woman, Men and Other Interesting Figures in Greek Literary Texts

Voela and Tamboukou use Slavojzizck's notion of the symptom as a lens through which to look at representations of female figures in Greek literary texts of the early twentieth century by Gregorios Xenopoulos. In mapping the construction of the figure of the modern woman in the matrix of discourses, fantasies and power relations of fin-de-siegravecle Greece, they draw on psychoanalytic insights, interrupted by Foucauldian interventions. Following Judith Butler's move of making trouble they attempt to open up a dialogic space between psychoanalytic and Foucauldian approaches to the female subject, contextualized in a specific social, historical and cultural milieu. It is in this context that they discuss, first, how feminine and masculine subjectivities are represented in man's speech; second, how unintended excesses and interruptions occur in the problematic representation of women; and, third, how madness and ultimately death come to play a significant role in the power relations between the sexes.

Citation:
Voela, A. and Tamboukou, M. (2004) ‘Enjoy Their Symptom: Of Woman, Men and Other Interesting Figures in Greek Literary Texts’, Women: a cultural review 15 (1) pp. 83-100..