Editing Hélène Cixous (section)

==Life and career==

=== Personal life ===
Cixous was born in [[Oran]], [[French Algeria]], to [[Jewish]] parents, Eve Cixous, née Klein, (1910–2013) and Georges Cixous (1909–1948).<ref name=jwa>{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/cixous-helene |title=Hélène Cixous |publisher=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=2014-01-17}}</ref> Georges Cixous, a physician who had written his dissertation on tuberculosis, died of the disease in 1948. Eve Cixous became a midwife in [[Algiers]] following his death, "until her expulsion with the last French doctors and midwives in 1971."<ref name=jwa /> Cixous' brother, Pierre, "a medical student and a supporter of [[Algerian independence]]" was condemned to death in 1961 by the [[Organisation armée secrète]], and joined Cixous in Bordeaux. Her mother and brother returned to Algeria following the country's independence in 1962. They were arrested, and Cixous "obtained their release with the help of [[Ahmed Ben Bella]]'s lawyer."<ref name=jwa />

Cixous married Guy Berger in 1955, with whom she had three children, Anne-Emmanuelle (b. 1958), Stéphane (1960–1961), and Pierre-François (b. 1961). Cixous and Berger divorced in 1964.<ref name=jwa />

=== Academic career ===
Cixous earned her [[agrégation]] in English in 1959<ref name=PoetryFoundation>{{cite web | url = https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/helene-cixous | title = Hélène Cixous | publisher = Poetry Foundation | access-date = 2 November 2018 }}</ref> and her ''[[Doctorate|Doctorat ès lettres]]'' in 1968. Her main focus, at this time, was [[English literature]] and the works of [[James Joyce]]. Cixous became ''assistante'' at the [[University of Bordeaux]] in 1962, served as ''maître assistante'' at [[University of Paris|the Sorbonne]] from 1965 to 1967, and was appointed ''maître de conférence'' at [[Paris Nanterre University]] in 1967.<ref name=Conley >{{Citation  | last = Conley | first = Verena A. | editor-last = Sartori | editor-first = Eva M. | editor2-last = Zimmerman  | editor2-first = Dorothy W. | title = French Women Writers | publisher = University of Nebraska Press | series = Bison Book | date = 1 January 1994 | chapter = Hélène Cixous | pages = 66–77 | isbn = 978-0803292246 }}</ref>

In 1968, following the [[May 1968 events in France|French student riots]], Cixous was charged with founding the [[University of Paris VIII]], "created to serve as an alternative to the traditional French academic environment."<ref name=Crockett>{{cite web  | url = https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/peaking-behind-the-curtains-of-adieux/#! | title = Peaking Behind the Curtains of Adieux | last = Crockett | first = Benjamin | date = 12 August 2015 | website = Los Angeles Review of Books | access-date = 2 November 2018 }}</ref> Cixous would, in 1974, found the University's centre for [[women's studies]], the first in Europe.<ref name=PoetryFoundation /> Cixous is a professor at the University of Paris VIII and at the [[European Graduate School]] in [[Saas-Fee]], [[Switzerland]].<ref>{{cite web  | url = http://egs.edu/faculty/helene-cixous | title = Hélène Cixous | publisher = The European Graduate School  | access-date = 2 November 2018 }}</ref>

=== Publications ===
In 1968, Cixous published her doctoral dissertation ''L'Exil de James Joyce ou l'Art du remplacement'' (''The Exile of James Joyce, or the Art of Displacement'') and the following year she published her first novel, ''Dedans'' (''Inside''), a semi-autobiographical work that won the [[Prix Médicis]].<ref name=PoetryFoundation />

She has published widely, including twenty-three volumes of poems, six books of essays, five plays, and numerous influential articles. She published ''Voiles'' (''Veils'') with [[Jacques Derrida]] and her work is often considered [[Deconstruction|deconstructive]]. In introducing her Wellek Lecture, subsequently published as ''Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing'', Derrida referred to her as the greatest living writer in his language (French).<ref>{{cite book  | last = Cixous | first = Hélène | title = Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing | publisher = Columbia University Press | date = 15 April 1994 | location = New York City | isbn = 978-0231076593 }}</ref> Cixous wrote a book on Derrida titled ''Portrait de Jacques Derrida en jeune saint juif'' (''Portrait of Jacques Derrida as a Young Jewish Saint''). Her reading of Derrida finds additional layers of meaning at a [[Phoneme|phonemic]] rather than strictly [[Lexicon|lexical]] level.<ref>Not the same as [[pun]]s, which play on the varied means of a word or phrase or the [[homonym]]s thereof.</ref> In addition to Derrida and Joyce, she has written [[monograph]]s on the work of the Brazilian writer [[Clarice Lispector]], on [[Maurice Blanchot]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Heinrich von Kleist]], [[Michel de Montaigne]], [[Ingeborg Bachmann]], [[Thomas Bernhard]], and the Russian poet [[Marina Tsvetaeva]]. Cixous is also the author of essays on artists, including [[Simon Hantaï]], [[Pierre Alechinsky]] and [[Adel Abdessemed]] to whom she has devoted two books.

Along with [[Luce Irigaray]] and [[Julia Kristeva]], Cixous is considered one of the mothers of [[Post-structuralism|poststructuralist]] [[feminist theory]].<ref>{{cite news
| title = How many of these great female thinkers have you heard of?
| work = Daily Post (Liverpool)
| page = 12
| date = 11 December 2007
}}</ref>
In the 1970s, Cixous began writing about the relationship between [[human sexuality|sexuality]] and language. Like other poststructuralist feminist theorists, Cixous believes that our sexuality is directly tied to how we communicate in society. In 1975, Cixous published her most influential article "Le Rire de la Méduse" ("The Laugh of the Medusa"), which was revised by her, translated into English by Paula Cohen and Keith Cohen, and released in English in 1976.<ref name=Cixous /> She has published over 70 works; her fiction, dramatic writing, and poetry, however, are not often read in English.<!--Unencyclopedic?: The difficulty of translating her work may be minimally exemplified even by examining the title just discussed.-->

=== Film ===
Hélène Cixous is featured in [[Olivier Morel (filmmaker)|Olivier Morel]]'s 118-minute film ''[https://www.amazon.com/Ever-Reve-Shaghayegh-Beheshti/dp/B0CMCXCNRK Ever, Rêve, Hélène Cixous]'' (France, USA, 2018).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.evercixousmovie.com/?lang=en|title=Evercixousmovie|date=2019|website=www.evercixousmovie.com|access-date=March 13, 2019}}</ref>

===Accolades and awards===
Cixous holds honorary degrees from [[Queen's University at Kingston|Queen's University]] and the [[University of Alberta]] in Canada; [[University College Dublin]] in Ireland; the [[University of York]] and [[University College London]] in the UK; and [[Georgetown University]], [[Northwestern University]], and the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] in the USA. In 2008 she was appointed as A.D. White Professor-at-Large at [[Cornell University]] until June 2014.<ref>{{cite news
 | url = http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2008/08/three-named-ad-white-professors-large
 | title = French writer, German scholar and British poet named A.D. White Professors-at-Large
 | last = Aloi
 | first = Daniel
 | date = 13 August 2008
 | newspaper = Cornell Chronicle
 | access-date = 1 November 2008
 }}</ref>