Kiss and tell: 'The writing cure' in Kathryn Harrison's The Kiss (1997)

The article challenges conventional assumptions regarding the question of i ncest survival within contemporary discourses. A textual analysis of Kathry n Harrison's autobiographical novel tracing her consensual sexual relations hip with her father is used to address the issue of failed or unresolved mo urning as a prototypically 'modern' cultural phenomenon. Psychoanalytically informed feminist literary criticism is used to explore the parallels betw een the cultural construction of femininity and failed or postponed mournin g in western historical and philosophical traditions. Following the work of Juliana Schiesari and Kathleen Woodward, the article contends that melanch olia is a gendered discourse that has historically privileged male theorist s and film-makers, such as Barthes and Fassbinder. The article suggests tha t contemporary women writers, such as Harrison, are engaged in a revisionar y approach to the construction of loss within their writing. By situating t hemselves at the heart of the contemporary family narrative, instead of the 'melancholic' margins, they are able to produce a counter-discourse that d ispels the conventional dynamics of the traditional family romance. By usin g the 'writing cure' to overcome ideological loss, the desiring daughter is able to challenge misogynist constructions of femininity within contempora ry literature.