Inscribing the female body in selected poems from 'Storya by Lina Sagaral Reyes

• Main Author: Tan, Fannie
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1994
• Subjects: Philippine poetry; Reyes; Lina Sagaral 'Storya; Feminist poetry; Lina Sagaral > Criticism and interpretation
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/1234
• Institution: De La Salle University

The female and her body have been continually treated as objects of utilization, not as subjects with a right to personhood in society. Our so-called canon of world literature reflects this. Using Helene Cixous theory of ecriture feminine, this paper will analyze both explicit and implicit binary oppositions found in the poems of Lina Sagaral Reyes, a well-recognized Filipina writer. According to Helene Cixous, the binary oppositions found in texts deal death to the feminine side because the female is always negatively evaluated in a patriarchal society. By studying whether and how Lina Reyes' poems free the female from the death-dealing struggle of oppositions and in the process celebrate the female body, this paper shall hope to contribute a clearer understanding to the importance of female writing like that of Lina S. Reyes to our Philippine society.