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Helene Cixous: Authorship, Autobiography and Love

ISBN: 978-0-745-61255-3

February 1996

Polity

216 pages

Description
This book is a clear and accessible introduction to the writings of Helene Cixous, novelist, dramatist and critic, whose work has had a major impact on feminist theory and practice.

Susan Sellers, a major scholar on Cixous, provides a lucid account of Cixous's theoretical position, and in particular her distinctive theory of an 'écriture féminine'. She discusses the development of Cixous's literary oeuvre in the context of this theory, and analyses a selection of the works in detail to illustrate the different stages in Cixous's writing career.

Focusing on the key novels and plays, Sellers explores a range of issues and themes central to her work; the correlation between the death of Cixous's own father and her 'coming-into-being' as a writer; the psychological process of separation and individuation and the creation of a female authorial self; the discovery of the other and the dramatization of love; the delineation/depiction of an alternative form of relationship between self and other which would have a significance in a wider sphere than that of the merely personal.

This much-needed book will be welcomed by students in literature and literary theory, feminism and women's studies, English and French studies and philosophy.

About the Author

Susan Sellers is a British author, translator, editor and novelist. She is Professor of English and Related Literature at the University of St Andrews, and co-General Editor of the Cambridge University Press edition of the writings of Virginia Woolf.

Features
* This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the work of Helene Cixous, which will be accessible to students as well as researchers.
* It provides a detailed exposition of Cixous's theoretical position, paying particular attention to her fiction and drama. This focus is what makes the book distinctive.
* It will be welcomed by a broad audience working in literature/literary theory, philosophy, French studies, and women's studies and feminism.