RE:Framing Rad Fem

RE: Framing Hélène Cixous | by Esmée

Part 1: Newly Born and Ferocious

Esmée Streachailt

Esmée Streachailt

— 13 min read
RE: Framing Hélène Cixous | by Esmée
Hélène Cixous
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Re:Framing Hélène Cixous | by Esmée
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Born in Oran, Algeria, in 1937, Hélène Cixous participated in the founding of the University of Vincennes (Paris 8) in 1968, where she created the doctorate in women's studies in 1974. She and Jacques Derrida, and other scholars, established the new experimental school to open new avenues of inquiry in the wake of May 1968 and the tightening of France's already tight educational scope. She is the mother of "writing the body" and a pivotal figure in both French and US feminist philosophy. She received the Prix Médicis in 1969 for Dedans.

If you are new to this series, let me catch you up. In THE RADICAL NOTION I began work on a series of essays on French or poststructural and radical second wave feminist theorists (plus Derrida). "Re: Framing Radical Feminims" includes essays on Luce Irigaray (my center of gravity), Mary Daly, Francoise d'Eaubonne, and Marija Gimbutas. I also interviewed Sharon Blackie and Max Dashu. I'm interested in how the archeology, mythology, and history of women plays with the more abstract philosophical theories of feminists about women – the phenomenology, the ontology, the ethics. So I think a lot about culture, politics, and the many conditions of women. 

I'm also, turns out, interested in nerds who got tired of being told no or too much or too far out and who just went and did their own thing – especially if they're women. Like ... starting your own experimental university.

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