Hélène Cixous

Bibliography

NOVELS IN FRENCH

Or les lehres de man père. Editions des femmes, 1997.

Messie. Editions des femmes, 1996.

La fiancée juive. Editions des femmes, 1995.

Beethoven à jamais. Editions des femmes, 1993.

Déluge. Editions des femmes, 1992.

L'ange au secret. Editions des femmes, 1991.

Jours de l'an. Editions des femmes, 1990.

Manne aux Mandelstams, aux Mandelas. Editions des femmes, 1988.

La Bataille d'Arcachon. (Quebec) Editions Trois, 1986.

Le Livre de Promethea. Gallimard, 1983.

Limonade tout était si infini. Editions des femmes, 1982.

With, Ou l'art de l'innocence. Editions des femmes, 1981.

Illa. Editions des femmes, 1980.

Anankè. Editions des femmes, 1979.

Vivre l'orange. Editions des femmes, 1979.

Préparatifs de noces au-delà de l'abîme. Editions des femmes, 1978.

Angst. Editions des femmes, 1977.

Partie. Editions des femmes, 1976.

Là. Gallimard, 1976.

Souffles. Editions des femmes, 1975.

Révolutions pour plus d'un Faust. Le Seuil, 1975.

Portrait du soleil. Denoël, 1975.

Tombe. Le Seuil, 1973.

Neutre. Grasset, 1972.

Un vrai jardin. L'Herne, 1971.

Les Commencements. Grasset, 1970.

Le troisième corps. Grasset, 1970.

Dedans. Grasset, 1969.

Le Prénom de Dieu. Grasset, 1967.

LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY IN FRENCH

Hélène Cixous, Photos de Racine. (co-authored with Mireille Calle-Gruber). Editions des femmes, 1994.

L'heure de Clarice Lispector. Editions des femmes, 1989.

Entre l'écriture. Editions des femmes, 1986.

La Venue à l'écriture. (co-authored with Annie Leclerc and Madeleine Gagnon). U.G.E., 10/18, 1977.

Un K. impompréhensible: Pierre Goldman. Christian Bourgeois, 1975.

La jeune née. (co-authored with Catherine Clément). U.G.E., 10/18, 1975.

Prénoms de personne. Le Seuil, 1974.

L'exil de Joyce ou l'art du remplacement. Grasset, 1969.

PLAYS IN FRENCH

La Ville parjure ou le réveil des Erinyes. Editions du Théâtre de Soleil, 1994.

Voile Noire Voile Blanche. (see English translation) 1994.

L'Histoire (qu'on ne connaître jamais). Editions des femmes, 1994.

On ne part pas, on ne revient pas. Editions des femmes, 1991.

La nuit miraculeuse. (co-authored with Ariane Mnouchkine). Editions du Théâtre du Soleil, 1989.

L'Indiade ou l'Inde de leurs rêves. Editions du Théâtre du Soleil, 1987.

Théâtre. Editions des femmes, 1986.

L'histoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk, roi du Cambodge. Editions du Théâtre du Coleil, 1985.

"La prise de l'école de Madhubaï." Avant-Scène (1984).

Le Nom d'Oedipe, Chant du corps interdit. Editions des femmes, 1978.

Portrait de Dora. Editions des femmes, 1976.

"La Pupille." Cahiers Renaud-Barrault (1971).

ARTICLES IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH

[Note: Cixous is such a prolific writer that it will take much time to list all of her French articles on this website. Here are two options:

The Bibliography section of her latest English book, Rootprints (Routledge, 1997), has a complete listing, as compiled by M. Sandré and Eric Prenowitz.

The Cixous Biblioigraphy of the University of California at Irvine Library's Special Collections Department provides an listing of Cixous' publications, searchable by year, as compiled by Dr. Eddie Yeghiayan. To reach this index, type: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~scctr/Wellek/cixous/index.html or click here.]

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS (BOOKS)

Stigmata: Escaping Texts. Routledge, 1998.

FirstDays of the Year. Translation of Jours de l'an. Trans. Catherine MacGillivray. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1998.

Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing. (co-authored with Mireille Calle-Gruber). Translation of Photos de Racine. Trans. Eric Prenowitz. Routledge, 1997.

The Hélène Cixous Reader. Ed. Susan Sellers. Routledge, 1994.

The Terrible But Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia. Translation of L'histoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk, roi du Cambodge. Trans. Juliet Flower macCannell, Judith Pike and Lollie Groth. Unviersity of Nebraska Press, 1994.

Manna, for the Mandelstams for the Mandelas. Translation of Manne aux Mandelstams, aux Mandelas. Trans. Catherine MacGillivray. University of Minnesota Press, 1994.

Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing. (The Welleck Library Lectures, Univ. of California at Irvine). Trans. Sarah Cornell and Susan Sellers. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1993.

Readings: The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Lispector, Tsvetaeva. (Seminars 1982-1984) Trans. Verena Conley. University of Minnesota Press, 1992.

"Coming to Writing" and Other Essays. Translation of La Venue à l'écriture. Ed. Deborah Jenson. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pres, 1991.

The Book of Promethea. Translation of Le Livre de Promethea. Trans. Betsy Wing. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1991.

Reading with Clarice Lispector. Translation of L'heure de Clarice Lispector. Trans. Verena Andermatt Conley. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1990.

The Newly Born Woman. Translation of La jeune née. Trans. Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1986.

Inside. Translation of Dedans. Trans. Carol Barko. New York: Schocken, 1986.

The Conquest of the School at Madhubaï. Translation of "La prise de l'école de Madhubaï." Trans. Deborah W. Carpenter. Women and Performance 3 (1986): 59-95.

Angst. Translation of Angst. Trans. Jo Levy. New York: Riverrun, 1985.

The Exile of James Joyce or the Art of Replacement. Translation of L'exil de Joyce ou l'art du remplacement. Trans. Sally Purcell. New York: David Lewis, 1980.

To Live the Orange. Translations of Vivre l'orange. Trans. Ann Liddle and Sarah Cornell. Editions des femmes, 1979. [Note: This is a bilingual edition.]

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS (PLAYS)

"Voile Noire Voile Blanche / Black Sail White Sail." Trans. Catherine MacGillivray. New Literary History 25 (Spring 1994): 219-354.

"The Name of Oedipus." Translation of Le Nom d'Oedipe, Chant du corps interdit. Trans. Christiane Makward and Judith Miller. Out of Bounds, Women's Theater in French. Univ. of Michigan Press, 1991.

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS (ARTICLES)

[Note: Cixous is such a prolific writer that it will take much time to list all of the English translations of her articles on this website. Here are two options:

The Bibliography section of her latest English book, Rootprints (Routledge, 1997), has a complete listing, as compiled by M. Sandré and Eric Prenowitz.

The Cixous Biblioigraphy of the University of California at Irvine Library's Special Collections Department provides an listing of Cixous' publications, searchable by year, as compiled by Dr. Eddie Yeghiayan. To reach this index, type: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~scctr/Wellek/cixous/index.html or click here.]

Secondary Sources in English

Conley, Verena Andermatt. Hélène Cixous: Writing the Feminine. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1991.

Take a Closer Look ...

Interviews with Hélène Cixous

[Most of the more than 30 interviews Cixous has done since 1969 have not yet appeared in English, and many are quite difficult to find. To take a closer look at these interviews, browse through these summaries.]

"L'Exil de Joyce," entretien avec Gilles Lapouge. La Quinzaine Littéraire 68 (Mar 15, 1969), pp. 6-8.

Summary: This interview concerns Cixous' doctoral thesis and subsequent book, The Exile of James Joyce, or the Act of Replacement. Cixous discusses the importance of Joyce's daughter, Lucia, in the work and of Joyce's hatred of psychoanalysis. Also addressed is the theme of exile in Joyce's life and work.

"Dans 'Tombe' d'Hélène Cixous c'est la culture qui est enfouie," entretien avec Claudine Jardin. Le Figaro 1411 (June 2, 1973), p. 16.

Summary: This interview concerns Cixous' book Tombe, which addresses the issue of loving someone menaced by death. The issue of desire desiring itself is raised, in the context of Plato's Symposium.

"Dora et Portrait du soleil," entretien avec Madeleine Gagnon, Philippe Haeck, et Patrick Straram. Chroniques 1/2 (Feb. 1975), p. 16-25.

Summary: This interview concerns Cixous' book Portrait du Soleil. Cixous rejects the claim that one must undergo psychanalysis in order to understand this book. She argues that although a text is produced by the unconscious, psychoanalysis does not always lift the repression which covers over the unconscious. Cixous explains how this text is a rereading of Freud's "Dora" case, focusing on the question of desire. Later in the interview, she discusses how a revolutionary force, lying dormant in women, will burst forth in France.

"A Propos de Marguerite Duras," par Michel Foucault et Hélène Cixous. Cahiers Renaud Barrault 89 (1975), pp. 8-22.

Summary:

"Quelques questions à Hélène Cixous," entretien avec Françoise Collin. Les Cahiers du GRIF 13 (Oct. 1976), pp. 16-20.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous addresses the questions of: 1) silence in writing, 2) loving yourself, 3) the priviledge and sacrilidge of writing, 4) the myth of anonymity, and 5) the difference between feminine and masculine expressions of loss and grief in writing.

Note: I would like to thank Raelinn Stegall for assisting with the translation of this interview.

"Hélène Cixous et 'Le Portrait de Dora'," entretien avec Claire Devarrieux. Le Monde (Feb. 26, 1976), pl. 15.

Summary:

"Interview with Hélène Cixous," interview with Christiane Makward.

Summary: IN this interview, Cixous discusses how her Women's Studies group began at Vincennes, emerging out of her work on femininity, sexual difference, and bisexuality. She also distances herself from the MLF and the Psych et Po groups, who are "encumbered with nonviable contradictions." In order for political and social change to occur, Cixous argues that the man/woman dichotomy must be re-examined. Cixous also briefly comments on Genet, Joyce, Wittig, Sarraute, Duras, and her text Révolutions pour plus d'un Faust. She concludes by saying that her current work explores the feminine body.

"Le grand JE au féminin," entretien avec Nicole Casanova. Les Nouvelles Littéraires 54 (Apr 8, 1976), p. 6.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous discusses her book Là, which explores the feminine unconscious. This book is based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as it describes the birth of woman in her own language. She also addresses the issue of the need to invent a feminine psychoanalysis, and to explore feminine jouissance.

"Entretien avec Hélène Cixous," entretien avec Jacqueline Sudaka. Les Nouveaux Cahiers No. 46 (Aut 1976), pp. 92-95.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous discusses her childhood and upbringing, in the context of being a Jewish woman writer.

"Entretien avec Françoise van Rossum-Guyon." Revue des Sciences Humaines 44 (Oct-Dec 1977), pp. 479-493.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous discusses her discomfort with the association of three terms: writing, femininity, and feminism. Instead, she wants to focus on difference, on how the body inscribes itself differently in feminine jouissance and in masculine jouissance. Cixous also discusses: 1) the issue of power in relation to femininity and politics, 2) what it means to read a book, 3) the limits of the unconscious, and 4) how her books Là and Angst present a figure of woman going towards woman.

Note: I would like to thank Dr. Felicia Sturzer (Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga) for allowing me to see her English translation of this interview.

"Un destin révolu," entretien avec Colette Godard. Le Monde (July 28, 1978), p. 16.

Summary:

"Biographie de l'écriture," entretien avec Alain Poirson. Révolution No. 74 (July 31, 1981), pp. 18-20.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous discusses the path of her writing as a giving birth of a subject. She addresses her childhood in Algeria, her work in relation to the MLF and the GIP, and her books from Dedans to Illa. She comments at length on her latest book, Illa, which is a text of birth, of joy in another universe, of the feminine. Cixous proceeds to the question of power/knowledge and discusses the issue of mastery in academic institutions.

"Le roman d'aujourd'hui," entretien avec Henri Quéré. Fabula No. 3 (Mar 1984), pp. 147-158.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous addresses questions of how she writes her books and how she teaches her courses at Vincennes. She talks about Kafka and the courage to write. When asked about "ècriture feminine," Cixous rejects the term and instead talks about writing a "feminine speech." She comments on Beckett, Kleist, Joyce, Dostoyevsky, Pasternak, and Rimbaud.

"Hélène Cixous," interview with Susan Sellers. Women's Review 7 (May 1985), pp. 22-23.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous addresses her work, "The Last Word." She talks about: 1) love and knowledge, 2) the effects of growing up in a multi-lingual household, 3) the issues of loss and risk in her works, and 4) generosity and writing with her whole body. She concludes by discussing how difficult it is to describe happiness when there is so much unhappiness in the world.

"Une témérité tremblante," entretien avec Véronique Hotte. Theatre Public 68 (Mar-Apr 1986), pp. 22-25.

Summary:

"Entretien," entretien avec C. Rabant, P. Hassoun, et C. Maillet. Patio 10 (éditions de l'éclat) (1988), pp. 61-76.

Summary:

"Le tragique de la partition," entretien avec Bernard Golfier. Theatre Public 75 (June 1988), pp. 81-84.

Summary:

"Interview with Hélène Cixous," interview with Catherine Anne Franke. Qui Parle (Spr 1989), pp. 152-179.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous discusses two plays she has written in collaboration with the Théâtre du Soleil: L'Histoire Terrible Mais Inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk, Roi du Cambodge, and L'Indiade ou L'Inde de Leurs Rêves. She explains how Shakespeare was the ground for her play on Sihanouk, whereas the Iliad and the Bible grounded her play on India. She discusses the fragility of life and of goodness, along with the difficulty of fidelity in life.

"A propos de Manne," entretien avec Françoise van Rossum-Guyon. Hélène Cixous, chemins d'une écriture. Ed. Françoise van Rossum-Guyon et Myriam Díaz-Diocaretz. Saint-Denis: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1990, pp. 213-234.

Summary:In this interview, Cixous discusses her story Manne aux Mandelstams aux Mandelas, focusing on the relation between history, exile, gift, and writing. She describes the impact of the person of Winnie Mandela on her writing, along with the Mandelstams' story of the wedding cake. She describes the fruits of the cross-fertilization of these Black Africans and Russian Jewish couples in her writing. She also discusses: 1) religion, particularly the transmission of religion, 2) separation and exile in writing, 3) the question of nourishment (manna), and 4) her desire to make real characters appear in this work.

Note: I would like to thank Dr. Victoria Steinberg (Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga) for allowing me to see her English translation of this interview.

"Guardian of Language," interview with Kathleen O'Grady, translated by Eric Prenowitz. This interview is available at: http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/liu/grady-cixous.html or click here.

Summary: In this interview, Cixous explains that theory is a consequence of, not an inspiration for, her work. She discusses the impact on her writing of reading Clarice Lispector, and the impact of literary actions in political arenas. Cixous also comments on the relation between French society in the 1970s and her own work on a poetics of sexual difference.

"Love or Theory," interview with Kristin Switala. (Publication forthcoming)

Summary: In this interview, Cixous discusses the difficulty of a concept of "theory" and how love figures into her thought. She addresses Kierkegaard's story of Abraham and the concept of "separé-union." Cixous rejects the concept, "écriture feminine," becuase there is no such thing as pure femininity or pure masculinity. She concludes with an analysis of care and regard for the other.

Internet Sites

Dr. Eddie Yeghiayan of the University of California at Irvine has compiled a listing of Cixous' publications in an index searchable by year. To reach this site, type: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/~scctr/Wellek/cixous/index.html or click here.

Cixous has been chosen to be one of the Presidential Lecturers at Stanford University in 1998-99 and they have uploaded many great pages on Cixous, which you can view at: http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/cixous/commentary.html#ef or click here.

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