The Day I Wasn't There by Helene Cixous
In this memoir-novel, a narrator who resembles Helene Cixous obsessively recounts an incident - the premature death of her first-born child, a Down syndrome baby left in the care of the clinic in Algeria where her midwife mother works. She uses this event to probe her family history and her relationship with her mother, a refugee from Nazi Germany; her dead father, after whom the baby is named; and her medical-student brother, who takes on some of the duties of a father figure. Cixous's elusive writing bears all the trademarks of her poetic, provocative style, vivid with word play, intense feeling and a stream-of-consciousness that moves freely over time and place. The narrator's mother claims not to remember what happened, and the brother tries to fill in some gaps in the story. By the end of the book we understand the significance of the title: one day Cixous's mother returned to the clinic to find the baby on the brink of death. Rather than attempt to save him she chose to end his suffering. By closing the door to the imaginary clinic at the end, the narrator at last resolves the feelings of guilt and realizes that each human being has a fate they must endure. Informed by psychoanalytical theory, and always brutally honest, ""The Day I Wasn't There"" is above all an intimate study of a woman's inner landscape.
Helene Cixous is a French writer, feminist philosopher, playwright, critic, and activist who continues to influence writers, scholars, and feminists around the world. Her recent works include Reveries of the Wild Woman (Northwestern, forthcoming), The Third Body (Northwestern, 1999), Veils (with Jacques Derrida) (Stanford, 2001), Portrait of Jacques Derrida as a Young Jewish Saint (Columbia, 2003), and The Writing Notebooks of Helene Cixous (Continuum, 2004). Beverley Bie Brahic is also the translator of Helene Cixous's Reveries of the Wild Woman.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780810123649 |
| ISBN 10 | 0810123649 |
| Title | The Day I Wasn't There |
| Author | Helene Cixous |
| Series | Avant-Garde And Modernism Studies |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Northwestern University Press |
| Year published | 2006-05-30 |
| Number of pages | 112 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |