Volleys of Humanity

Hélène Cixous is Director of the Centre d'Études Féminines at Université Paris VIII, Emerita. one of the foremost intellectuals and creative writers in France and a major figure in the emergence and global spread of postmodern literary theory, late-20th-century Continental Thought and Women's Studies. She is the author of more than 40 novels, 14 plays and 15 volumes of theory and essays. Her work has been translated into more than 20 languages, including Japanese, Korean, Hindi and Urdu. Eric Prenowitz is Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. He is an acclaimed reader and translator of both Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida. Recent publications include special editions of parallax and New Literary History on the work of Hélène Cixous, and 'Rêvécrire', in Rêver croire penser, CampagnePremière, 2010.

As essayist, Helene Cixous always astonishes with the unforeseeable volleys of her poetically driven, politically riven prose. How fortunate her English language readers are to find these priceless texts together in one volume. Time, almost forty years, has passed, but untouched is the absolute youth and vitality of every line. -- Professor Peggy Kamuf, University of Southern California Volleys of Humanity is perhaps the richest single volume of Cixous' critical writings yet published in English. A lucid and beautiful introduction by Eric Prenowitz leads into an explosive salvo of texts, ranging from early essays already justly famous ('Fiction and its Phantoms' and 'The Character of "Character"') to the tremendous title-essay 'Volleys of Humanity', first published in French in 2009. There are also remarkable essays (previously unpublished in English) on Joyce, Clarice Lispector ('the greatest writer in the twentieth century'), and Michel Foucault, as well as on Algeria, US politics and theatre, cities and the unforeseeable. -- Nicholas Royle, University of Sussex As essayist, Helene Cixous always astonishes with the unforeseeable volleys of her poetically driven, politically riven prose. How fortunate her English language readers are to find these priceless texts together in one volume. Time, almost forty years, has passed, but untouched is the absolute youth and vitality of every line. Volleys of Humanity is perhaps the richest single volume of Cixous' critical writings yet published in English. A lucid and beautiful introduction by Eric Prenowitz leads into an explosive salvo of texts, ranging from early essays already justly famous ('Fiction and its Phantoms' and 'The Character of "Character"') to the tremendous title-essay 'Volleys of Humanity', first published in French in 2009. There are also remarkable essays (previously unpublished in English) on Joyce, Clarice Lispector ('the greatest writer in the twentieth century'), and Michel Foucault, as well as on Algeria, US politics and theatre, cities and the unforeseeable.

• A Note on the TextsSeries Editor's PrefaceIntroduction: Cixousian Gambols By Eric Prenowitz1. Fiction and its Phantoms: A Reading of Freud's Das Unheimliche2. The Character of 'Character'3. Re Egg-gendring in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake or how Joyce makes us (s)cream with laughter4. The Pleasure Reinciple or Paradox Lost5. Reaching the Point of Wheat, or A Portrait of the Artist as a Maturing Woman6. Letter to Zohra Drif7. The Names of Oran8. The Book as One of Its Own Characters9. How Not to Speak of Algeria10. The Oklahoma Nature Theatre is Recruiting11. The Book I Don't Write12. The Unforeseeable13. Passion Michel Foucault14. Promised Cities15. Volleys of HumanityAcknowledgementsIndex