Neuter

"Helene Cixous is an author, theorist, and critic whose theoretical works are widely read; her prose fiction, however, is both highly experimental and heavily grounded in its original languages. This translation constitutes an attempt to bring this experimental prose to an English-language readership." "Neuter was first published by Grasset in 1972 as the third part of a trilogy which includes Le troisieme corps and Les commencements, published in 1970. It summarizes Cixous's earlier concerns - self, language, meaning, relations, ecriture feminine - by laying bare metaphors, incorporating existing material, and through fragmentation, association, and play on signifiers. Its "substance" is nebulous; there is no "content" or "plot," and the "story" itself is more one of the characters than a structural element." "The feature of Neuter which most concerns Cixous's guiding philosophy is its woven structure, whose goal is to transform the narratives, myths, and discourse that mold our selves. Weaving and transformation have a very close relation in Neuter. The French words tissage and texte have the same origin, and Neuter fully demonstrates the importance of that relation; a woven text is a text that brings the reader into it." "The title Neuter reflects Cixous's focus on language and her attempt to free the masculine and the feminine from sexual preconceptions. Neuter's language is an alternative that allows the true alterity which Cixous feels will lead to true freedom from sexual bias."--BOOK JACKET.