Thinking Difference Differently: An Exploration of l'écriture féminine, Women's Art Practice, and Postfeminism

L'écriture féminine sought to challenge phallocentrism and open up alternative textual spaces to articulate sexual difference. Whilst it emerged very specifically in a French context, it was perhaps most notably appropriated by Anglo-American theorists and practitioners. This article provides a critique of how women and second-wave feminist artists in particular have drawn on the strategies and thinking of l'écriture féminine beyond its French milieu. In doing so, it reconceptualizes l'écriture féminine as an intertextual entity and multi-layered discourse, and explores how it may be conceived in relation to postfeminism to provide ways to think about difference differently.