In writing Le Livre de Promethea Helene Cixous set for herself the task of bridging the immeasurable distance between love and language. She describes a love between two women in its totality, experienced as both a physical presence and a sense of infinity. The result is a stunning example of Pecriture feminine that won kudos when published in France in 1983. Its translation into English by Betsy Wing will extend the influence of a writer already famous for her novels and contributions to feminist theory.

In her introduction Betsy Wing notes the contemporary emphasis on "fictions of presence." Cixous, in The Book of Promethea, works to "repair the separation between fiction and presence, trying to chronicle a very-present love without destroying it in the writing."

About the Author
Helene Cixous is also author of the play The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, translated by Juliet Flower MacCannell, Judith Pike, and Lollie Groth (Nebraska 1994). Betsy Wing is a freelance translator and fiction writer. She translated Catherine Clement and Helene Cixous's La Jeune Nee (The Newly Born Woman) into English in 1986. A collection of her fiction, Look Out for Hydrophobia, was published in 1990.


Book Information
ISBN 9780803263437
Author Helene Cixous
Format Paperback
Page Count 211
Imprint University of Nebraska Press
Publisher University of Nebraska Press
Weight(grams) 298g