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Heidi Liehu. Kirsikankukkia. Helsinki. WSOY. 1993. 254 pages.
Western philosophy and culture have been wrought by men. The structure of language has been erected by men too. How then can a woman use language to express herself, her thoughts and experience? This is the thesis of Heidi Liehu's Kirsikankukkia (Cherry Blossom), wherein she sets in question the boundaries of philosophical speculation, poetry, science, and fiction.
A doctor of philosophy, Liehu has published three volumes of poetry and is the daughter of a poet. She tries to define what woman's "difference" is, though she does not explicitly make a division between woman's essence and the role society has given (or forced upon) her. She attempts to put forward a woman's way of approaching the world, as opposed to the normal, "patriarchal" way. Like the book as a whole,...