Hélène Cixous
Visiting Professor

Hélène Cixous, internationally renowned French feminist philosopher, writer, playwright, and activist, has had a long and productive relationship with Northwestern. She has taught numerous seminars over the years, introducing the literature of Lispector, Kleist, Blanchot, and Bachmann, among many others, to Northwestern students, as well as the philosophical and other writings of Freud, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Derrida. Her play The Perjured City, or The Furies' Awakening, translated into English by Northwestern Professor Bernadette Fort, received its American premiere at Northwestern in February 1997. This premiere was also the signal event of a major three-day conference on AIDS that took place at Northwestern, February 21-23, 1997: "Realizing AIDS: Action, Intervention, Discourse, Sites." Cixous was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature from Northwestern University in June 1996.

Cixous will be coming back to Northwestern in Fall 2003 when she will be giving a series of lectures and workshops on her work for the theater and her relation with the celebrated Théâtre du soleil. For details, see our Calendar. Cixous's books, The Day I Wasn't There and Reveries of the Wild Woman, are forthcomingfrom the Northwestern University Press (which has also published Cixous's The Third Body in 1999).

For more links to Professor Cixous's work please visit her page in the Department of French and Italian website.