Hélène Cixous, Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing [Paperback]

Mireille Calle-Gruber (Author), Hélène Cixous (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415155428 | ISBN-13: 978-0415155427 | Publication Date: June 27, 1997 | Edition: 1

Helene Cixous is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and innovative contemporary thinkers. Published here in English for the first time Helene Cixous, Rootprints is an ideal introduction to Cixous's theory and her fiction, tracing her development as a writer and intellectual whose remarkable prespicacity and electrifying poetic force are known world-wide.
Unprecedented in its form and content this collection breaks new ground in the theory and practice of auto/biography. Cixous's creative reflections on the past provide occasion for scintillating forays into the future.
The text includes:
* an extended interview between Cixous and Calle-Gruber, exploring Cixous's creative and intellectual processes
* a revealing collection of photographs taken from Cixous's family album, set against a poetic reflection by the author
* selections from Cixous's private notebooks
* a contribution by Jacques Derrida
* original 'thing-pieces' by Calle-Gruber.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In these edited dialogs, Cixous, known in the English-speaking world chiefly as a literary theorist and political activist, is given an opportunity to chat about her fiction, theater, and, most interesting of all, her family. Interlocutor Calle-Gruber is far from passive. She not only knows what Cixous wants to say about herself, but she has opinions of her own?though, unfortunately, the decision to put Calle-Gruber's questions in very small type will encourage readers to skip them. Interspersed are meditations and maxims from Cixous's notebook. What is especially valuable about this collection is its reproduction of selected family photographs and the family tree. Cixous came from a family of German-speaking Central European Jews who settled in Algeria. Her father was a physician and her mother a midwife in Oran, the site of Camus's The Plague. This work is truly indispensable for filling in the gaps of Cixous's imaginative biography of her father, Or, Lettres de mon pere (still untranslated). Effectively translated, this is recommended for larger public and academic collections.?Marilyn Gaddis Rose, SUNY at Binghamton, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'I think you have to give Cixous' prose plenty of time; then it detonates in your brain ... Well worth buying.' - Michele Roberts, The Independent

'A comprehensive introduction to Helene Cixous in all her diverse aspects.' - The Fawcett Library Newsletter

'She gives you a shattering sense of how, under conventional language, there rages something else altogether, which we too could discover if we cherish doubt and uncertainty.' - Michele Roberts, The Independent

'Well worth buying.' - Michele Roberts, The Independent

'Only a small number of books fall into the category of an introductory text which is sufficiently intelligent and lucid to be essential reading for a more informed audience. Rootprints belongs to that even more select group of texts: the essential introduction written by the primary source.' - New Formations

'It is brilliant; it is art...' - Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman

'Rootprints is a must for those already educated in feminism and is also a challenging introduction to Cixous'' world for the reader who comes to Cixous the first time through this book' - Edina Szalay, HJEAS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (June 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415155428
• ISBN-13: 978-0415155427
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #278,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helping my daughter-in-law (my daughter-in-heart) get her PhD, October 6, 2008

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dizit (Cambria, CA. USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Hélène Cixous, Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing (Paperback)

My fabulous daughter-in-heart is working on her PhD (on a full scholarship!) in Poetry.
My gifts to her have been mostly connected to that end. Helene Cixous: Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing, was of the highest priority on her wish list, so it was a no brainer. It wouldn't matter how much it cost, I'd get it for her.
I could not love this woman more than if she were born to me.