Hélène Cixous: Autobiography in Question

Abstract

Hélène Cixous constantly challenges any generic categorization and any autobiographical reading of her works, despite strong autobiographical evidence identifying the writer to the narrator. This challenge, as curious as it is, nevertheless has a reason to be. The works of Helene Cixous put into a narration a hybrid “I”, both fictional and real, a “Me” on the edge of a dream, which cannot have any real reference, so much so that it is impossible to read them as an autobiography, strictly speaking. Whether Les Rêveries de la femme sauvage. Scènes primitives or Le Jour où je n’étais pas là or even Philippines Prédelles, the autobiographical works on which the present study is based all have in common a challenge to any autobiographical reading.