About the Conference

The work of Hélène Cixous represents a unique experience of literary writing, in particular, thanks to the extraordinary range of its elements and perspectives.

It is in the first place an intense engagement with LANGUAGE and languages in the tradition of Joyce, but it also creates an explicit dialogue with that tradition itself, as exemplified by writers from Kafka to Poe to Lispector. By means of those affinities and that dialogue, it practices a form of AUTOBIOGRAPHY that stages the subject of writing in both senses of the genitive: putting on stage the “I” who writes, and watching how it is transformed by its writing. One such transformation has been called by Cixous the “FEMININE,” and her work is synonymous with the experiment and experience of the feminine as a creative and political force. For Cixous, asking what the feminine wants and does, and what wants and does in general, cannot avoid a detour through the investigations of PSYCHOANALYSIS as narrativized by Freud and developed by Lacan. Just as any so-called literary writing cannot avoid turning its attention to the philosophical investigations of the last 40 years that go by the name of “THEORY,” and which, in Cixous’ case, led to a series of responses to and collaborations with Jacques Derrida.

Cixous’ texts, variously called fictions, novels, and essays, constitute an idiosyncratic rewriting of generic boundaries that is already a major achievement, but which is cast in an even more remarkable light by her work in the forefront of French THEATRE.

“Hélène Cixous: Written Initials - Ultimate Plays will address the full range of Cixous’ work, from its putting into play of the name and life of the author to its psychoanalytical and theoretical investment, from its daring wager on behalf of the signifier to its promotion of a genuinely contemporary theatre.

Participants

  • Hélène Cixous
  • Geoffrey Bennington, Emory University
  • Verena Conley, Harvard University
  • Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California
  • Ginette Michaud, University of Montreal
  • Michael Naas, DePaul University
  • Eric Prenowitz, University of Leeds
  • Nicholas Royle, University of Sussex
  • Marta Segarra, University of Barcelona
  • Brigitte Weltman-Aron, University of Florida



email Conference Planners
Web design by dreamLogic Courtesy Open Web Design Thanks to web hosting bluebook site design: dave OutsidetheText