Product Description

Stigmata collects some of Helene Cixous' most intriguing meditations. A unique book, it is a testimony to an extraordinary writer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264822 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Review
'The ultra unscrutable feminist theorist'

- The New York Times

'A literary critic, and a very intelligent one....a sort of French Susan Sontag.'
- The Financial Times

'Stigmata's sample of offerings brings the reader up to date with her current concerns [and] make[s] a worthwhile contribution to Cixous studies . . . undoubtedly of value to those students, teachers and researchers who are interested in her rich body of writing.'
- Gill Rye, Women's Philosophy Review

'Hélène Cixous is in my eyes, today, the greatest writer in the French language. Stigmata is henceforth a classic. One of her most recent masterpieces.'

- Jacques Derrida

From the Publisher
For immediate release:
STIGMATA: ESCAPING TEXTS

by Helene Cixous

Stigmata is work that gets away -- escaping reader, writer, and book...

This is a collection of recent short texts by Helene Cixous, who is hailed as a foremost contemporary writer and thinker of our time. World-renowned for her brilliant contributions to French feminism and acclaimed by luminaries such as Jacques Derrida, her writing, and in particular her fictional texts which constitute by far the greatest part of her work, has nonetheless been misunderstood and misread, often simply avoided, to a surprising extent. Cixous is extremely attentive to what language has to say and her playful, boundary-bending, and innovative style is what makes her work so exciting, powerful, moving, and suspicious.

The pieces included here resist classification according to any simple categories of subject matter or genre. With the remarkably creative rigor she is known for, Helene Cixous's writing is taken up in a reading pursuit, chasing across borders and through languages on the heels of works by authors who share an elusive movement in spite of striking differences. Along the way, these essays explore the broad range of poetico-philosophical questions that have long been circulating in the Cixousian universe: the self and the other, autobiographies of writing, love's labors lost and found, sexual difference, feminism and feminine hours, the prehistory of the work of art and reading the visual arts, animal (w)rites and trans-species relations, literary theory, post-colonial theory, death and life, woven into a writing performance at the intersection of contemporary Western history and a singularity named Helene Cixous.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Since the publication of Dedans (Inside, Prix Medicis 1969), Helene Cixous has written more than thirty books of poetic fiction, innumerable critical essays, and eight plays, all produced at the Theatre du Soleil. Cixous's works have been translated into more than ten languages. She is Professor of Literature at the University of Paris 8, which she helped to found in 1968. In 1974, she created a doctoral program in Women's Studies there and the Centre de Recherches en Etudes Feminines, which she still directs. She also teaches at the College International de Philosophie.

From the Back Cover
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.