https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.059
Reclaiming the Blood: A Study of Menstrual Politics in Select Poems by Women Writers
NAGMA NISHA NANDA
Lecturer in English
Brajrajnagar College, Brajrajnagar, Odisha
Email: nishanagma235@gmail.com
Abstract: The inherent nature of blood that creates a life to populate the world belongs to a woman. History has been unkind to the matriarchs who have borne the physical and mental burden of carrying the child by sacrificing themselves. The concept of menstrual blood doesn’t limit itself to a biological problem in a female body but rather associates itself with socio-political problems of purity and morality. The male-centered literary canon not only denigrates the representation of female in texts but also disparages the female body by associating it with various taboos. The social shame around female menstrual blood as dirty, danger and pollution reflects the textual tenet of literary tradition. The groundbreaking feminist criticism of Helen Cixous and Elaine Showalter shifted the phallocentric text to gynocentric texts. It paved the way for the Modernist and Post-modernists writers to reclaim their blood and bodily fluid that transcends the barrier of gender. Poets like Lucille Clifton, Judy Grahn and Bernadette Mayer have deviated from the conventional poetic style and portrayed the female body with all its flaws and dignity. Through the critical analysis of select poems of various women writers this paper intends to explore the stigma around female period, phases of menstruation and motherhood with its eccentric hermeneutics and confessions.
Keywords: Menstruation, Menopause, Motherhood, Memory, Feminine, Phallocentrism, Gynocriticism, Blood
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