Hi all! I recently finished the poetry collection Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong. Before I dive deeper into it, let me preface by stating that this collection is phenomenal. Anyone looking for a profound sense of connection to one’s familial, cultural, linguistic, and gender and sexuality identities will flip open the first page and immediately absorb Vuong’s beautiful pain.
Taking my lessons from Advanced Literature Theory from my senior year of high school, I began reading Vuong’s poems through the lens of feminist theories. This perspective opened up myriads of new, personal, and connected interpretations of Vuong’s ideas, which I aspire to share with you all through this article. As always, please feel free to email me at shyowon830@gmail.com for further conversations 🙂
Deconstruction of the Gender Binary in Time is a Mother
In the poetry collection Time is a Mother, Ocean Vuong explores the topics of death, love, sexuality, violence, and language through anecdotes of his mother, Rose, and the aftershocks that he faces after her death. Two poems, “Snow Theory” and “Beautiful Short Loser,” illustrate Vuong’s examination of Western language, where he portrays it as a system that reinforces social divisions surrounding gender and sexuality. From a poststructuralist feminist theorist perspective, where gender and gender-associated divisions are viewed as oppressive binaries within the phallogocentric–masculine-favoring–system of language, Vuong’s exploration involves attempts to dismantle the binary structure. In “Snow Theory,” where Vuong describes how he accepts his mother’s physical death and holds onto the memories they made together, Vuong portrays his desire to break down linguistic gender divisions that disconnect him from his mother. In “Beautiful Short Loser,” Vuong demonstrates his hardships yet pride in living as a queer person under the traditional systems of gender and sexuality; simultaneously, he embraces the poststructuralist feminist theorist notion of bisexuality to reject the division between femininity and masculinity. Through “Snow Theory” and “Beautiful Short Loser,” Ocean Vuong deconstructs gender binary oppositions of the phallogocentric order of language, thus encouraging the audience to reconsider linguistic social categorizations as systems, not truths.
Poststructuralist feminist theory was developed in the late 1900s by female theorists who sought to understand how gender is “created and/or destabilized within the structure of language (Klages 67).” Following the arguments of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, poststructuralist feminist theorists based their studies on the Symbolic order, the structure of language that users must enter to become speaking subjects (66). According to Lacan, to enter into the Symbolic, one must separate from the maternal body–the realm of the Real–as the Symbolic is centered by the inherently patriarchal Phallus that creates fixed meanings (Lacan 38-40, 555). Hélèn Cixous, a poststructuralist feminist theorist, saw “man” and “woman” as subject positions within this Symbolic (Klages 66). She posited “woman” as a binary opposition to “man,” and coined the term phallogocentric to describe the linguistic structure of the Western culture where other binaries reinforce the gender opposition–male/female, order/chaos, presence/absence, speech/writing, light/dark, and more. Cixous insisted that, in each of these binary oppositions, the first term is favored over the latter, and that all valued terms are linearly aligned with one another to establish the phallogocentric gender binary (66-68). In her article, “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Cixous described such an establishment as the “greatest crime” that men have committed against women, where they have “violently” forced women to repress, hate, and immobilize themselves to ultimately drive women away from their bodies and language (878).
In the Symbolic’s phallogocentric and thus masculine-favoring order of language, Cixous argued that “woman” is posited as a “without,” an absence (The Laugh of the Medusa 877). She explained that, due to her absent position, “woman” is not fully controlled by the center of the Symbolic and can escape the linguistic system in ways that “man” cannot (Klages 67). One such method is jouissance, a French word for orgasm in which, from a poststructuralist feminist theorist perspective, refers to “a form of pleasure that is beyond language” (67). Linguistically unrepresentable, the feminine jouissance disrupts the linear structure of language and deconstructs the phallogocentric binary oppositions (67). Furthermore, Cixous claimed that only when women write about masturbation, which is socially considered secretive and shameful, can they reclaim a female-centered sexuality and write from the feminine position–l’ecriture feminine (The Laugh of the Medusa 876-877). Cixous established that one who speaks or writes with l’ecriture feminine creates a rupture where the binary system can be seen as a structure that can be destabilized rather than an absolute truth (Klages 71). In this context, l’ecriture feminine is an inherently deconstructive language that allows users to come closer to the realm of the Real, which represents a sense of reunion with the mother, the breast, and female bodies in general (72).
This l’ecriture feminine can be utilized only by subjects who are on the margins of and can defy the structures of the Symbolic–the outlaws (Klages 73). Apart from women, these outlaws are “bisexuals” who, from Cixous’ perspective, practice the “nonexclusion either of the difference or of one sex” (The Laugh of the Medusa 884) and can thus “transmit” and “inscribe femininity” (Makward and Cixous 22). Cixous’ bisexuality refuses not only the gender binary but also the division of self/other, allowing all other dichotomies to fall apart (Klages, 73). Hence, Cixous’ bisexuality serves as a “deconstructive force to erase the slashes in all structuring binary oppositions” (Klages 73). In “Snow Theory” and “Beautiful Short Loser,” Vuong embraces this bisexuality to ultimately dissolve the distinctions between the phallogocentric binary structures of gender.
In “Snow Theory,” Vuong portrays his desire to break down linguistic gender divisions by illustrating his wish to reunite with the feminine and incorporating jouissance into his writing. In “Snow Theory,” Vuong lies down over Rose’s outline in the snow and creates a snow angel in an attempt to “keep her true”; however, he realizes that his action “destroyed” and “killed” the outline. Considering how Vuong uses snow as a symbol for paper throughout Time is a Mother, the “dry outline” of Rose in the snow can be viewed as a scribed representation of the maternal body and femininity on paper–l’ecriture feminine. In such a representation, the empty inner space of the outline alludes to the absent position of women in the phallogocentric order of language. Vuong’s action of “lay[ing] down over her outline, to keep her true” portrays his desire to fill such linguistic absence and engage in l’ecriture feminine to reunite with not only the maternal body but the feminine in general. By seeking an “unalienated” relationship to femininity (Klages 66), Vuong expresses his desire to enter the pre-Symbolic realm of the Real and, thus, his desire to deconstruct and escape the linguistic gender structures of the Symbolic. Furthermore, Vuong once again signals his desire to break the fixed gender system by writing about his “Thought of masturbation.” Considering how narratives surrounding the jouissance disrupt the phallogocentric linguistic binaries by describing a pleasure beyond language (Klages 67), Vuong’s reference to “masturbation” illustrates his aspiration to deconstruct the linear and divided relationship of set gender structures.
Despite this desire, in “Snow Theory,” Vuong’s masculine position in language prevents him from utilizing the l’ecriture feminine to break down the gender divisions. When Vuong attempts to fill in the feminine absence and utilize the l’ecriture feminine by laying over Rose’s snow outline, he creates a snow angel that looks as if it is “being destroyed in a blizzard.” According to Cixous, the phallogocentric order of language is a violent crime of men that drives women away from their bodies and language (The Laugh of the Medusa 878); by comparing his action to a blizzard, an especially destructive type of snow, and using the present tense of “being” to do so, Vuong alludes to his current masculine position and the continuous oppression and violence that he, as a user of the masculine-favoring language, brings to the feminine. Hence, Vuong portrays himself as a “man” who is unable to, and should not, utilize the language of a “woman.” Vuong’s limited incorporation of orgasmic language also illustrates his inability to utilize the l’ecriture feminine. Although he writes about jouissance, Vuong only mentions his “Thought” and fails to describe masturbation in a manner beyond Western language. Moreover, Vuong writes about his masculine masturbation, not the linguistically-deconstructive feminine jouissance, implying that his masculine position limits his ability to dissolve the gender divisions. Thus, despite his desire, as a linguistic “man,” Vuong fails to embrace the l’ecriture feminine and deconstruct the phallogocentric binaries.
Vuong overcomes such deconstructive limitations in “Beautiful Short Loser” by identifying himself as an outlaw–a bisexual. As aforementioned, this bisexuality refers to the linguistic notion developed by Cixous, the refusal of both the feminine/masculine and the self/other as structuring dichotomies (The Laugh of the Medusa 884). Vuong rejects the division of the feminine and masculine when he writes, “I mean it when I say I’m mostly / male,” refusing to categorize himself under one fixed gender category. Vuong’s addition of the space before “male” may imply his hesitation and difficulty in accepting his bisexuality and breaking the social construct of “male.” However, by ultimately overcoming this hardship, Vuong shows the audience that conventional gender restrictions in language can be destabilized. Moreover, since an enjambment breaks the sentence while allowing the message to flow, Vuong’s use of enjambment alludes to his process of deconstructing the linearity, division, and structure of the phallogocentric order of language. By exemplifying such deconstruction, Vuong encourages the audience to reevaluate social structures as not truths but systems that can be deconstructed.
Furthermore, Vuong proceeds to refuse the binary of self/other by portraying an ‘other’ inside his head. The linear relationship between “The trees look like grandfathers laughing in the rain” and “the trees look like family laughing in my head” illustrate that Vuong creates a parallel between “rain” and “[his] head.” Considering such a parallelity, the line, “I’m dancing / in the rain with a wedding dress & it makes sense,” simultaneously suggests that he is dancing inside “[his] head” and that “it makes sense.” By doing so, Vuong alludes to the presence of an “other” space within himself in which he can dance in, and thus rejects the division of the self/other. This presence of an ‘other’ within himself is further strengthened when Vuong “knocks on [his] skull,” an inner-head space, to converse. By accepting the existence of an ‘other’ inside his ‘self,’ Vuong refuses the structuring dichotomy of the self/other, thus identifying himself as a linguistic bisexual who can utilize the deconstructive l’ecriture feminine.
Vuong embraces his linguistic bisexuality to erase and replace the division in gender binary structures with ampersands, ultimately encouraging the audience to reconsider these linguistic categorizations. For example, by writing that “you & I outliving” beauty is more beautiful than beauty itself, Vuong positively describes the deconstruction of the self/other and promotes the coexistence of conventional divisions. During this process, Vuong incorporates the visual symbol of an ampersand instead of the written word “and” to establish his position as less masculine and structured and thus, linguistic, accordingly with Cixous’ description of the l’ecriture feminine as escaping the bounds of language itself (Klages 67). In several other cases throughout “Beautiful Short Loser” where he erases structural dichotomies, Vuong uses ampersands to bring light to the structural binaries that may have been relatively unnoticed. For instance, Vuong writes, “‘I imagine Van Gogh singing / Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” into his cut ear & feeling peace.” Vuong’s simultaneous reference to “singing” and “Van Gogh,” an artist, evidently dissolves the binary construct of speech/writing. Yet, through the ampersand, he reminds the audience of another, coexisting binary opposition of chaos/order, how the seemingly-chaotic deconstruction of speech/writing and the order from “peace” are now placed together. Hence, Vuong well-embraces Cixous’ notion of bisexuality to “erase the slashes in all structuring binary oppositions” (Klages 73), prompting the audience to view language as a deconstructable system, not unchangeable truths.
As Vuong explores language in relation to Rose’s death in Time is a Mother, he identifies the gender binary system of the inherently-masculine text. In “Snow Theory,” Vuong demonstrates his desire yet inability to deconstruct this dividing structure to reunite with the maternal and the feminine. When Vuong identifies himself as a linguistic outlaw–a bisexual–in “Beautiful Short Loser,” Vuong is able to fully break down the gender binary, replacing the conventional either-or with the visual ampersand. By recording his deconstructive process, Vuong encourages the audience to re-evaluate linguistic social categorizations as systems that can be destabilized rather than absolute truths.
Works Cited
Cixous, Hélène, et al. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Signs, vol. 1, no. 4, 1976, pp. 875–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173239. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.
Klages, Mary. Literary Theory: The Complete Guide. London, New York, 2017.
Lacan, Jacques. Ecrits. Translated by Bruce Fink, e-book ed., New York City,
W.W. Norton, 2006.
Makward, Christiane, and Helene Cixous. “Interview with Helene Cixous.”
SubStance, vol. 5, no. 13, 1976, pp. 19-37. JSTOR, https://doi.org/
10.2307/3684336. Accessed 1 Mar. 2023.
Vuong, Ocean. Time Is a Mother. New York City, Penguin, 2022.