Book Description

-- Jacques Derrida

Customer Reviews (3)

Perfect!
Other's have said much about this book so I will keep my review short.I've given this book to many friends of mine and explained that it is the first book I've read on writing that merits a reread.It is without catagory or direct instruction.It speaks on the art of writing, as well as the craft.Most importantly, it speaks of sacrifice.Frankly, I am tired of reading about or reading books from authors who give nothing of themselves in their art.Lispector, Kafka - where have all the dusty and tattered souls gone.

Hard to categorize (a good thing)
I knew of Cixous, had a general idea of her doing work toward a kind ofecriture feminine (feminine writing), but hadn't actually read her writinguntil I read this book while tanning in Southern New Jersey this past June. This book was on a recommended reading list for a writing class I wastaking, though I think I'm the only one who read it; it's not at all yourusual writer's-help book, but that's good. It is dense, genre-breakingacademic-poetic writing that I ended up having to get out of the sun toread.This book is comprised of a set of essays originally given aslectures, separated into "The School of the Dead," "The School of Dreams,"and "The School of Roots."The writers that resonate with Cixous are"descenders, explorers of the lowest and the deepest," (a conceptintroduced in "The School of the Dead") and include some I knew --Kafka,Dostoevsky, Genet, and Ingeborg Bachmann, and others I hadn't -- ClariceLispector and Marina Tsvetaeva.I see there's a Derrida "endorsement" bothhere on the Amazon website and on the cover of the book, and so, as youwould expect, this book's meditation on the connection between language anddesire, between writing and the body, some wordplay and deconstruction ofthe very shape of letters or the names of writers is what you might expectfrom a French poststructuralist.What set this book apart for me was itsattitude toward the works cited.Cixous doesn't use literature to promoteflashy ideas; it's seriously personal work, a "Schooling" on thinking aboutone's own writing, she's actually interested in defining "truth."Thefirst part of "The Dead," especially the kind of cataloguing of"deaths-as-beginnings" was fascinating.I found the "School of Roots"section absolutely packed with virtuoso readings and ideas.Her closing,"Toward a book without an author" is the perfect payoff culmination ofher/our hard work from the pages that preceded it.You'll have to read ityourself to see if you "get it" / agree with it.

Hard to categorize (a good thing)
I knew of Cixous, had a general idea of her doing work toward a kind ofecriture feminine (feminine writing), but hadn't actually read her writinguntil I read this book while tanning in Southern New Jersey this past June. This book was on a recommended reading list for a writing class I wastaking, though I think I'm the only one who read it; it's not at all yourusual writer's-help book, but that's good. It is dense, genre-breakingacademic-poetic writing that I ended up having to get out of the sun toread.This book is comprised of a set of essays originally given aslectures, separated into "The School of the Dead," "The School of Dreams,"and "The School of Roots."The writers that resonate with Cixous are"descenders, explorers of the lowest and the deepest," (a conceptintroduced in "The School of the Dead") and include some I knew --Kafka,Dostoevsky, Genet, and Ingeborg Bachmann, and others I hadn't -- ClariceLispector and Marina Tsvetaeva.I see there's a Derrida "endorsement" bothhere on the Amazon website and on the cover of the book, and so, as youwould expect, this book's meditation on the connection between language anddesire, between writing and the body, some wordplay and deconstruction ofthe very shape of letters or the names of writers is what you might expectfrom a French poststructuralist.What set this book apart for me was itsattitude toward the works cited.Cixous doesn't use literature to promoteflashy ideas; it's seriously personal work, a "Schooling" on thinking aboutone's own writing, she's actually interested in defining "truth."Thefirst part of "The Dead," especially the kind of cataloguing of"deaths-as-beginnings" was fascinating.I found the "School of Roots"section absolutely packed with virtuoso readings and ideas.Her closing,"Toward a book without an author" is the perfect payoff culmination ofher/our hard work from the pages that preceded it.You'll have to read ityourself to see if you "get it" / agree with it. Now I'm inspired to readmore Cixous. ... Read more

Book Description
A "wilful extremist" according to the London Times, Hélène Cixous is hailed as one of the most formidable writers and thinkers of our time. From collaborating with acclaimed performance company Théâtre du Soleil, to producing a weighty body of both fiction and non-fiction, Cixous is celebrated for her brilliant contributions to contemporary culture. Acclaimed by luminaries such as Jacques Derrida, her writing has nonetheless been misunderstood and misread, to a surprising extent. With the inclusion of Stigmata, one of her greatest works into the Routledge Classics series, this is about to change.
Questions that have long concerned her - the self and the other, autobiographies of writing, sexual difference, literary theory, post-colonial theory, death and life - are explored here, woven into a stunning narrative. Displaying a remarkable virtuosity, the work of Cixous is heady stuff indeed: exciting, powerful, moving, and dangerous. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Must for Feminist & Literary Theory
This amazing books gives readers the ability to scrutinize literary texts from a feminist perspective.Cixous clearly lays out her arguments and offers a unique perspective on the struggle of woman and how she is seen by the rest of the world.This book is a must for any Women's Studies or English major. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

again and again
When I see orange and russet leaves wet with the mist of a rainy day in Central Park I feel as happy to be alive as I do when I read Cixous' essay "The Last Painting," included in this book. I imagine the shimmering surface of the Cathedral at Rouen. I feel glad that a human can write and think with such clarity and beauty and that I can read her words.

feminist critical theory
_Coming to Writing & Other Essays_ is a collection of essays dealing with the relationship between a marginalized person and writing-- that is between a person whose voice has been silenced and her voice.Cixous'writing is frequently narrative, rather than expository, so the text readslike so many short stories.She is irreverent and refreshing in the worldof drily written critical thought. ... Read more

Book Description
The work of Helene Cixous comprises some of the most radical aesthetic non-conformism in contemporary literature and literary theory. Cixous' great themes of existence, love, birth, death and dreaming nourish an unclassifiable work at the crossroads of diverse disciplines which concern everyone. In Helene Cixous, Rootprints, she explores the subterranean crossings which uncover the most intimate roots: those of childhood and language.

Published here in English for the first time, this work traces Cixous' development as a writer and intellectual, and is an ideal introduction to her theory and her fiction. Unprecedented in its form and content, Helene Cixious, Rootprints breaks new ground in the theory and practice of autobiography.Cixous' creative reflections on the past simultaneously provide occasion for brilliant forays into the future.

Helene Cixous, Rootprints includes an extended interview between Cixous and Calle-Grubar, exploring Cixous' creative and intellectual processes; and a revealing collection of photographs taken from Cixous' family album, illuminating the connections between memory and diaspora. Also included is a stunning preface by Jacques Derrida. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the first truly representative selection of texts by Helene Cixous.The substantial pieces range broadly across her entire oeuvre, and include essays, works of fiction, lectures and drama.Arranged helpfully in chronological order, the extracts span twenty years of intellectual thought and demonstrate clearly the development of one of the most creative and brilliant minds of the twentieth century.Susan Sellers' introductions to each piece will be especially helpful to readers new to the writings of Cixous.

With a foreward by Jacques Derrida, a preface by Cixous herself, and first-rate editorial material by Sellers, The Helene Cixous Reader is destined to become a key text of feminist writing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A translation that communicates the poetry!
This reader is a diverse selection of Cixous' work. Beautifullytranslated, thoughtfully arranged and annotated. The foreword by Derrida isvery helpful in understanding the translation and its difficulties.

Thetext maintains Cixous' poetic exploration of prose. From 'Angst' to'Deluge' to the 'Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing', one feels they haveentered this writer's mind and soul. Cixous's work is deeply psychologicaland her use of the power of words transcend language, at least in thistranslation for the most part. The french language is not something thatcan be transparently 'imported' as certain things are so inherent to thelanguage itself, they cannot be understood by the monoligual psyche.

Buteven for those who never wish to delve into the french language in itsoriginal form, this book will do a fine job of throwing them into a pool ofthought and mixed feelings.

Helene Cixous Reader:a review
This book of selected texts, arranged chronologically, includes poetry,fiction, essays and theatre pieces.Dense and not easily digested, it isfilling fare, full of intricately wrought words and images.Most of thework is translated from original French texts.For me, the most beautiful,clear writing is in sections with Cixous' own revision of the Englishtranslation. If you love writing, internal exploration or feminist thought,please read "To Live The Orange", first published in 1979. Herwords gave me tears, goosebumps, and a deep experience on many levels. ... Read more

Book Description
Manhattan is the tale of a young French scholar who travels to the United States in 1965 on a Fulbright Fellowship to consult the manuscripts of beloved authors. In Yale University’s Beinecke Library, tantalized by the conversational and epistolary brilliance of a fellow researcher, she is lured into a picaresque and tragic adventure. Meanwhile, back in France, her children and no-nonsense mother await her return. A young European intellectual’s first contact with America and the city of New York are the background of this story. The experience of Manhattan haunts this labyrinth of a book as, over a period of thirty-five years, its narrator visits and revisits Central Park and a half-buried squirrel, the Statue of Liberty and a never again to be found hotel in the vicinity of Morningside Heights: a journey into memory in which everything is never the same.Traveling from library to library, France to the United States, Shakespeare to Kafka to Joyce, Manhattan deploys with gusto all the techniques for which Cixous’s fiction and essays are known: rapid juxtapositions of time and place, narrative and description, analysis and philosophical reflection. It investigates subjects Cixous has spent her life probing: reading, writing, and the “omnipotence-other” seductions of literature; a family’s flight from NaziGermany and postcolonial Algeria; childhood, motherhood, and, not least, the strange experience of falling in love with, as Jacques Derrida writes, “a counterfeit genius.” ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description

Book Description
In the English-speaking world, Helene Cixous is known more for her criticism and theoretical texts than for her playwriting. Yet Cixous' work as a playwright establishes her as a participant in some of the most adventurous theatre-making in Europe within the last forty years. This unique collection brings together four of her plays - three of which appear here in English for the first time - a new interview with the author on her theatre-making, a translation of her essay, 'Enter the Theatre' and a complete list of her productions. The Selected Plays of Helene Cixous is an extraordinary resource for scholars, students and theatre-makers alike, bringing together some of the most resonant play-texts of the twentieth-century. ... Read more

Book Description
Hélène Cixous is one of the most brilliant and radical of contemporary theorists. This is the first publication in any language of Cixous' own Notebooks, illustrating the concept of 'écriture féminine' and offering new insights into Cixous's theoretical insistence on writing and her own practise as a writer.

Cixous' Notebooks exemplify how writing creates unique possibilities for circumventing the mistruths that shape us as subjects and which organise our relations with the world.

The Writing Notebooks opens with an introduction which outlines the central points of Cixous' notion of writing. The main body of the work is comprised of 60 photographic extracts from Cixous Notebooks, each extract accompanied by editorial annotation and a translation into English. The book concludes with a new interview with Cixous on the value of the Notebooks, the process of writing and her own fiction. ... Read more

Book Description
Series Editors: Bernth Lindfors, University of Texas at Austin; Robert Lecker, McGill University; David O'Connell, Georgia State University; David William Foster, Arizona State University; Janet Pérez, Texas Tech University

Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works. Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features:

• A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works
• A brief biography of the author
• An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author
• Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index
• A readable style presented in a manageable length

Book Description
Auteur cÉlÈbre d'une oeuvre multiforme et singuliÈre, HÉlÈne Cixous est surtout connue pour son thÉÂtre et ses Écrits sur la poÉtique de la diffÉrence sexuelle. Cette Étude traite pour la premiÈre fois d'une seule des fictions d'HÉlÈne Cixous, Portrait du soleil (1973). Elle tente d'expliciter le fonctionnement narratif et poÉtique et de relever les thÈmes et motifs essentiels de cette oeuvre en les mettant À l'Épreuve de la mÉtaphore solaire. Constatant une solaritÉ gÉnÉralisÉe, elle propose une ouverture sur l'ensemble de l'oeuvre d'HÉlÈne Cixous, en particulier son livre le plus rÉcent, O R, les lettres de mon pÈre (1997), et touche À la profonde motivation d'une Écriture.
Cette analyse, qui suit de prÈs le texte d'HÉlÈne Cixous, se dÉveloppe d'un chapitre À l'autre en entrant de plus en plus dans la complexitÉ des questions soulevÉes par le texte lui-mÊme. Elle tient compte du renouvellement critique et philosophique des annÉes 70 en France et ailleurs, dont la fiction de Cixous intÈgre les questionnements mais pour les dÉplacer et les transformer. Elle montre Également l'enracinement d'une oeuvre dans le vÉcu et dans l'Histoire.
Quant À l'impossible portrait du soleil que la fiction d'HÉlÈne Cixous essaie de tracer: il se manifeste À travers l'Évocation de la figure du pÈre, que l'on dÉcouvre partout prÉsente, liÉe À la mort et À l'expÉrience de la sÉparation, et dans l'autoportrait d'un sujet fÉminin, en train de se chercher À travers des histoires aussi bien fictionnelles que textuelles.

... Read more

Book Description
This is an introductory study of the work of Helene Cixous, novelist, dramatist and critic, whose work has had an extensive impact on the new French feminist theoretical movement. ... Read more

Product Description
A la force creatrice expremee au feminin(from inside page)A collection work by Helene Cixous ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Each paragraph a poem
This amazing book is thick with literary allusions, verbal play and passionate response to being human, to being in love.That might make it sound dense and too difficult but Cixous' love of language and love of playing with language, clever insights and sincere voice along with her sensous responses, makes this book a rewarding experience.It will not be a book you read quickly but it is also not one you will forget quickly.

worth the battle
I have never had to fight so hard to get through a book, and it was worth every word.Intense image, amazing passion, harsh honesty.It was reading poetry as prose, becoming so engulfed with an image that it could takehours to move on to the next page.It was just amazing. ... Read more