THE LAUGH OF MEDUSA 1. Cixous is well known for her notion of écriture feminine. In "The Laugh of the Medusa‚" Cixous maintains that to define a feminine practice of writing‚ or écriture feminine‚ is not possible since "it will always surpass the discourse that regulates the phallocentric system" that aims to theorize or enclose it (1976‚ p. 883). Cixous discusses her wariness of reductive language that would simplify or capture her practice of écriture feminine. Nonetheless‚ her basic attempt
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When a group of individuals come together to live and work together for their own self-preservation‚ they sign intangible contracts know as social contracts which‚ in a sense‚ are agreements they make to live as a society. Jean-Jacques Rousseau talks about these ideas in Book II of On the Social Contract. These aren’t so much simple things such as how food is attained or who will provide a certain service to the community. They are agreements that are at the root of their ability to cooperate and
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The Structure of Myth and the Structure of Western Film Based on Saussure (1974)‚ structuralism is a theoretical method derived from his theoritical work. He divides language into two component parts which together produce a third (signifier‚ signified and meaning). According to him‚ meaning is produced through a process of combination and selection. As Saussure insists‚ “In language‚ there are only differences without positive terms… language has neither ideas not sounds that existed before
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Jean Jacques Rousseau led a turbulent life. His mother died at his birth and his father deserted him shortly thereafter. Running from one set of friends to another as a young man he did settle long enough to do some serious writing from time to time. The Social Contract is considered one of his best works. This essay describes the relationship of man with society. Contrary to his earlier work‚ Rousseau claimed that the state of nature is "brutish condition without law or morality‚ and that there
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The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a group of four books put together to discuss the importance of sovereignty and individual freedoms given within a group. He believed that true political authority can only come if all of the people in a state are in agreement over their mutual preservation. Rousseau was an active citizen during the pinnacle of the French Enlightenment period when everyone valued the powers of reason over blind faith. This is why he strongly believes that everyone
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A person cannot talk about John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau first defining what each contract theorist means when he talks about the state of nature. For Locke‚ his state of nature involves “ungoverned humans pursuing their individual interests with respect for one another’s rights and even cooperate with one another with their interests overlap” (Portis‚ p. 103). These ungoverned humans are rational‚ resources are unconditional‚ and there is no threat from any external source. In Rousseau’s
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Contemporary Civilizations GENERAL WILL & MAJORITY RULE Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Institute of Government Rousseau’s notion of General Will possesses a direct correlation to the idea of general welfare and the common interests of a people as a whole. In On The Social Contract he explains the philosophy being the idea of General Will by stating that "So long as several men together consider themselves to be a single body‚ they have but a single will‚ which is concerned with their common
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Throughout Mark Twain’s novel he often seems to suggest that an uncivilized way of life is more desirable and morally superior than a civilized way of life. These ideas often relate to the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau‚ civilization often corrupts rather than improving the lives of human beings. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712 and died in 1778; he was a Swiss philosopher‚ writer‚ and political theorist. His novels helped to inspire the leaders of the French Revolution and the Romantic Generation
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(Sussex: The Harester Press Limited‚ 1976) 3. Derrida‚ Jacques‚ Acts of Literature‚ ed. by Attridge‚ Derek (London: Routledge‚ 1992) 4. Derrida‚ Jacques‚ Dissemination‚ trans 5. Freud‚ Sigmund‚ The Penguin Freud Library‚ Volume 4: The Interpretation of Dreams‚ (London: Penguin Books Limited‚ 1991) 6. Freud and the Humanities‚ ed 7. Joyce‚ James‚ Ulysses (London: Penguin Books Limited‚ 1992) 8. Kofman‚ Sarah‚ Freud and Fiction‚ trans 9. Lacan‚ Jacques‚ Ecrits: A Selection‚ translated from the French
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In the Social Contract‚ Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s key viewpoint is that all men are born free‚ but end up being in chains everywhere in the course of their lives (Rousseau and Cole 2 ). Rousseau argues that modern political states repress the basic freedoms which men possess as their birthright. These political states then lead men into the civil society in which the civil freedoms of men are not secure. Most importantly‚ Rousseau points out that the legitimacy of political authority can only be a
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