The Cixousian Woman in Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The Treatment of Bibi Haldar’

Abstract

For Cixous, as for other poststructuralist feminists, the reproduction of specific forms of power relations in society is integral. Poststructuralist feminists try to theorize patriarchal thought as misrepresentation of the actual power relations between the sexes in their public life, and Cixous focuses the personal conflict of a woman who is still stuck in the ancient predefined gender roles imposed by patriarchal society. The present article seeks to apply two Cixousian concepts, namely ‘the other’ and ‘the feminine’ to Lahiri’s ‘The Treatment of Bibi Haldar’ and analyzes the protagonist as an example of Cixousian woman. It argues whether Bibi experiences a novel feminine subjectivity and shakes the structure of her patriarchal semi-fairy tale or not. The patriarchal image of a woman as an angel in the house, and her determined gender role during the phallocentric history are analyzed in the story, and Cixous’ views on the feminine, patriarchal marriage and pregnancy are studied to see if Bibi is a Cixousian woman. All this is done to argue that in Cixousian feminism in particular, and in feminism in general, subjectivity and the conscious, willful construction of subjectivity, and deliberate identity-formation are prerequisites of ‘womanhood.’

Keywords:

• Helene Cixous
• Jhumpa Lahiri
• ‘The Treatment of Bibi Haldar’
• Feminism
• the Other