Manchester University Press HéLèNe Cixous: Dreamer, Realist, Analyst, Writing

Nicholas Royles funny, insightful, elegant, erudite book is not only a creative and thought\-provoking, highly sensitive reading of Cixouss literary oeuvre, but is also \- to adopt the idiom shared by Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida \- a ULO (unidentifiable literary object) in its own right. Royles book both introduces the English\-language reader to the distinctive pleasures of Cixouss inventive writing and takes the reader on an exhilarating linguistic adventure that reveals how apparently ordinary English words contain secret treasures and startling insights. At once expository and playful, original and funny, Nicholas Royles micrological approach to the work of Hélène Cixous enables a new critical understanding and appreciation of her writing. If there is complexity in her work, Royle suggests, there is also uncanny simplicity and great pleasure. The book focuses on key motifs such as dreams, the supernatural, psychoanalysis, creative writing, realism, sexual differences, laughter, secrets, the Mother unconscious, drawing, painting, autobiography as double life writing, telephones, non\-human animals, telepathy and the art of cutting. Particular stress is given to Cixouss work in relation to Freud and Derrida, as well as to her importance in the context of English literature. There are close readings of Shakespeare, Emily Brontë, P. B. Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, for example, alongside in\-depth explorations of her own writings, from Inside (1969) up to the present. Royles book will be of particular interest to readers coming to Cixouss work for the first time, but it will also appeal to readers interested in contemporary literature, creative writing, life writing, narrative theory, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, trauma studies, feminism, queer theory, ecology, drawing and painting. Review 'Royle considers Cixous's work in relation to that of authors that she has herself read and analyzed, in particular Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Sigmund Freud, and Jacques Derrida. The author states that his study is intended to be accessible for readers with little background in feminist literary theory, deconstruction, or psychoanalysis, and he delivers on that promise. This study is an exercise in creative reading, an approach Royle defines in the introduction for those unfamiliar with it... The book is compelling and will interest readers of Cixous in any language.'Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association. From the Inside Flap Nicholas Royles funny, insightful,elegant, erudite book is not only a creative and thought-provoking, highlysensitive reading of Cixouss literary oeuvre, but is also to adopt the idiomshared by Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida a ULO (unidentifiable literaryobject) in its own right. Royles book both introduces theEnglish-language reader to the distinctive pleasures of Cixouss inventivewriting and takes the reader on an exhilarating linguistic adventure thatreveals how apparently ordinary English words contain secret treasures andstartling insights. Elissa Marder, Emory University At once expository and playful, original and funny, NicholasRoyles micrological approach to the work of Hélène Cixous enables a new critical understanding andappreciation of her writing. If there is complexity in her work, Roylesuggests, there is also uncanny simplicity and great pleasure. The book focuseson key motifs such as dreams, the supernatural, psychoanalysis, creative writing,realism, sexual differences, laughter, secrets, the Mother unconscious,drawing, painting, autobiography as double life writing, telephones,non-human animals, telepathy and the art of cutting. Particular stress isgiven to Cixouss work in relation to Freud and Derrida, as well as to herimportance in the context of English literature. There are close readi