Readings: The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Kleist, Lispector, and Tsvetayeva (Volume 77)

by Hélène Cixous, Verena A. Conley (Translator)

The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Kleist, Lispector, and Tsvetayeva offers striking and novel textual studies of major literary figures and emergent authors. Selected from Cixous’s seminars taught between 1980 and 1986 at the Universite de Paris VII (Saint-Denis) and at the College International de Philosophie, the texts chronicle the French intellectual scene with its shifting tastes over the decade following May 1986.In their simple and accessible language, the texts can be read as inspiration for Cixous’s fictional and critical practices. They not only introduce readers to emergent texts from Brazil and Russia, such as Clarice Lispector’s “Foreign Legion” and Marina Tsvetayeva’s “Mother and Music,” but also give new, incisive insights into Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist and Kafka’s “Before the Law.” Drawing from philosophy and psychoanalysis, The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Kleist, Lispector, and Tsvetayeva can be read side-by-side with Reading with Clarice Lispector, as an ongoing meditation on ethics and poetics.Also from MinnesotaReading with Clarice LispectorHelene CixousEdited, translated, and introduced by Verena Andermatt ConleyFor Cixous, Lispector’s work represents one of the finest examples of ecriture feminine in that she practices, in writing, what Cixous is searching for in her theoretical the giving, spending, and inscribing of pleasure; an apprenticeship in the lessons of life.Theory and History of Literature, volume 73

Genres: Philosophy, Poetry, Theory, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Hélène Cixous is a Jewish-French, Algerian-born feminist well-known as one of the founders of poststructuralist feminist theory along with Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva. She is now a professor of English Literature at University of Paris VIII and chairs the Centre de Recherches en Etudes Féminines which she founded in 1974.

She has published numerous essays, playwrights, novels, poems, and literary criticism. Her academic works concern subjects of feminism, the human body, history, death, and theatre.

Reviews

[Jonfaith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joyce’s Non Servium is the connective tissue. Kafka applies such. Blanchot and especially Lispector provide the poetics. This is ultimately Cixous’ homage to the Brazilian, despite the other names on the cover. Blanchot is explored for his literature rather than his concepts or criticism. The Lispector citations are grounded more in her short fiction than her novels, which I did find interesting.

Cixous provides an enticing blend of criticism and poetry, this was most evident in the section on Kleist, which strangely was the one section I disliked. Perhaps due my dearth of time with the German poet.

These were fascinating lectures. I’d likely rate them a 3.5.

[Alyosha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading in order to compose a feminine poetics outside of the masculine economy - a poetics that moves and dances in its relation with otherness; a living poetics, as an apprenticeship towards living outside.

Cixous attempts to open a space through listening to the writing of others - a space in which the signifiers dance as the self attempts a step outside itself; a graceful step of a dance that moves with the other rather than seeking to grasp and control. A step towards this other poetic, a preparatory step, hazarded ever so boldly.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible!!

[Isla McKetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only rating this lower than the standard Cixous (whose work I adore) because I am less interested in literary theory than in experiencing literature, so this book was a slog for me to get through. Interesting ideas, though, and always interesting wordplay.