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Though I found it difficult to read at first, I really appreciated many of the themes Cixous was trying to get across; the reclaiming of the female body, the rejection of the "self-disdain" that so many women accept and how it is important for women to write for women.

However, having just read Spivak's article I couldn't help but think that by using the "Dark Continent" as an analogy for the repression of women, Cixous is victim to the same imperialist ideas and forces that Spivak criticize. Or am I missing something?

I think this is all evidence of how important it is for us to read with the awareness of the fact that underlying hegemonic imperialist forces are ever-present in literature. However, just because someone has one criticism of a text does not mean they should reject the whole thing.