Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism
Will be published approx. on 8. January 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
979-8-7651-3203-6 (ISBN)
Description
Helene Cixous is well-known as a reader of 'modernist' writers: Joyce, Beckett, Kafka, Faulkner, Bachmann and others, while her own fiction writing forges many new directions in literature.
Foremost readers of the work of Helene Cixous consider new interpretations of her vast literary and theoretical work, examining its relation and non-relation to modernism. Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism features an extended new interview with Cixous, conducted for the volume, in which she reflects on her relation to the critical category of 'modernism,' alongside a previously untranslated piece by the author.
As with other volumes in the series, Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism follows a three-part structure. Essays in the first section examine individual works by Cixous and the varied approaches her work has taken towards literature and art. The second section examines critical and aesthetic parameters of her writing practices. The final section contains a glossary of key terms and Cixous's neologisms recurrent throughout her work.
Foremost readers of the work of Helene Cixous consider new interpretations of her vast literary and theoretical work, examining its relation and non-relation to modernism. Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism features an extended new interview with Cixous, conducted for the volume, in which she reflects on her relation to the critical category of 'modernism,' alongside a previously untranslated piece by the author.
As with other volumes in the series, Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism follows a three-part structure. Essays in the first section examine individual works by Cixous and the varied approaches her work has taken towards literature and art. The second section examines critical and aesthetic parameters of her writing practices. The final section contains a glossary of key terms and Cixous's neologisms recurrent throughout her work.
Reviews / Votes
An icon of French feminism, Helene Cixous posed a major challenge to philosophy: Could it be anti-phallocentric, anti-patriarchal, and still be called philosophy? Cixous changed the terms of philosophical discourse by gendering and writing it differently, crafting an idiom of language-in-translation marked by displacements, hauntings, and scars of loss. This comprehensive volume, with itsdistinguished line-up of Cixous readers, conveys the historic importance of a major figure of modernist thought; one who stands with the great authors of literary modernism (Joyce, Kafka, Bachmann, Lispector) on whom Cixous draws for her own experimental forays in transgenre. * Emily Apter, Julius Silver Professor of Comparative Literature and French Literature, Thought, and Culture, New York University, USA * Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism is clever in its composition, at once profound and playful, bringing novelty to analyses that highlight the breadth and the brilliance of Helene Cixous's immense corpus. * Alison Rice, Dr. William M. Scholl Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of Notre Dame, USA *
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 b&w illustration
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
571 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-7651-3203-6 (9798765132036)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Peggy Kamuf
Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism
E-Book
12/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€98.99
Available for download
Peggy Kamuf
Understanding Cixous, Understanding Modernism
E-Book
12/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€98.99
Available for download
Person
Peggy Kamuf is Professor Emerita of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California, USA. She is a principal translator of the work of Jacques Derrida and has edited a number of his seminars. She has also translated several texts by Cixous. Her published work includes six monographs, and numerous essays and anthologies.
Content
List of Abbreviations of Works by Helene Cixous
Introduction
Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California, USA
Part I. Conceptualizing Cixous
1. Bookcities and Cityscapes: Going Places with Cixous (alongside Joyce and Kafka)
Laurent Milesi, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2. Scars Poetica
Laura Hughes, Independent Scholar
3. The Bee and the Coffee Machine: Writing Apparatuses and Machineries in Helene Cixous's Works
Olivier Morel, Notre Dame University, USA
4. Another Analysis: Helene Cixous's Magical Thinking
Elissa Marder, Emory University, USA
5. (S)He War, or Rethinking, War-Peace, and Crime with Cixous
Ginette Michaud, Universite de Montreal, Canada
6 Helene Cixous and Philosophy
Brigette Weltman-Aron, University of Florida, USA
7. Full Flush: An Interview with Helene Cixous
Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California, USA, and Nicholas Royle, University of Sussex, UK
Part II. Cixousian Aesthetics
8. The Apparatus of Death: Kafka, Baudelaire, Poe (from Seminar of 1 June 2024)
Helene Cixous
9. Countersigning Proust
Mairead Hanrahan, University College London, UK
10. Cixous Reading Kafka
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
11. Life-Death, Invisible Wrestlers, and Siamese Twins
Marta Segarra, University of Paris VIII, France
12. Fugue on a Theme of Helene Cixous
Naomi Waltham-Smith, Warwick University, UK
13. Ghostvoices in Hyperdream: Homonymy, Homophony, Repetition
Esther von der Osten, Freie Universitaet, Germany
14. "Write!": Medusa's Cixous
Eric Prenowitz, University of Leeds, UK
15. Mdeilmm: Mole Speech (excerpt)
Helene Cixous
Part III. Glossary
16. Algeriance
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
17. Appellation
Olivier Morel, University of Notre Dame, USA
18. Cry
Naomi Waltham-Smith, Warwick University, UK
19. Dream
Olivier Morel, University of Notre Dame, USA
20. Libidinal Economies
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
21. Mole
Nicholas Royle, University of Sussex, UK
22. Plusje
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
23. Puisse
Naomi Waltham-Smith, Warwick University, UK
24. The Book
Laura Hughes, Independent Scholar
Endnotes
Notes on Contributors
Index
Introduction
Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California, USA
Part I. Conceptualizing Cixous
1. Bookcities and Cityscapes: Going Places with Cixous (alongside Joyce and Kafka)
Laurent Milesi, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
2. Scars Poetica
Laura Hughes, Independent Scholar
3. The Bee and the Coffee Machine: Writing Apparatuses and Machineries in Helene Cixous's Works
Olivier Morel, Notre Dame University, USA
4. Another Analysis: Helene Cixous's Magical Thinking
Elissa Marder, Emory University, USA
5. (S)He War, or Rethinking, War-Peace, and Crime with Cixous
Ginette Michaud, Universite de Montreal, Canada
6 Helene Cixous and Philosophy
Brigette Weltman-Aron, University of Florida, USA
7. Full Flush: An Interview with Helene Cixous
Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California, USA, and Nicholas Royle, University of Sussex, UK
Part II. Cixousian Aesthetics
8. The Apparatus of Death: Kafka, Baudelaire, Poe (from Seminar of 1 June 2024)
Helene Cixous
9. Countersigning Proust
Mairead Hanrahan, University College London, UK
10. Cixous Reading Kafka
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
11. Life-Death, Invisible Wrestlers, and Siamese Twins
Marta Segarra, University of Paris VIII, France
12. Fugue on a Theme of Helene Cixous
Naomi Waltham-Smith, Warwick University, UK
13. Ghostvoices in Hyperdream: Homonymy, Homophony, Repetition
Esther von der Osten, Freie Universitaet, Germany
14. "Write!": Medusa's Cixous
Eric Prenowitz, University of Leeds, UK
15. Mdeilmm: Mole Speech (excerpt)
Helene Cixous
Part III. Glossary
16. Algeriance
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
17. Appellation
Olivier Morel, University of Notre Dame, USA
18. Cry
Naomi Waltham-Smith, Warwick University, UK
19. Dream
Olivier Morel, University of Notre Dame, USA
20. Libidinal Economies
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
21. Mole
Nicholas Royle, University of Sussex, UK
22. Plusje
Christa Stevens, Independent Scholar
23. Puisse
Naomi Waltham-Smith, Warwick University, UK
24. The Book
Laura Hughes, Independent Scholar
Endnotes
Notes on Contributors
Index