Die Bewegung des Anderen in den Schreibszenen von Hélène Cixous

Abstract

This essay explores the significance of movement and alterity in Hélène Cixous’s practice of writing, which she defines as an »exposure« to the other and as a sensitization to the present moment. The focus is on Cixous’s presentation of different modalities of being that are indissociable from the materiality of ‚écriture féminine‘. These range from the necessity for blindness in the act of writing and the discovery of imaginary worlds, to experiences of flight, sexual difference and modes of »de-selfing« in the process of writing. The transformative event-character of Cixous’s writing is foregrounded in her short story ‚Savoir‘, where the relationship between seeing and not-seeing, presence and absence, knowledge and desire is captured in the fleeting traces of the written word.