(c) Archive Kathleen Bomani
Hélène Cixous
J’ACCUSE …!
Sauf l’ “Aléthérature”, qui relèvera mon nom blessé?
Discussant: Sibylle Lewitscharoff
Moderator: Ina Hartwig
The “J’accuse!” series delves into the value of the “intellectual” in public life and the usefulness of his or her engagement in encounters between a prominent French thinker and a German conversational partner. The series’ fourth guest is Hèléne Cixous, who follows Régis Débray, André Glucksmann und Aminata D. Traoré. Her “J’accuse” contribution is titled “Sauf l’»Aléthérature«, qui relèvera mon nom blessé?”. According to Cixous, direct confrontation of the intellectual with the powers that be has little effect. She has therefore invented the literary resistance of “Aléthérature”: a coined term mixing “literature” and “alatheia”, which means “truth” in Greek and describes an act of protest of a writer who feels confronted with death – even his own.
The conversation in the Literaturhaus takes place with author Sibylle Lewitscharoff, whose Stuttgart novel Consummatus was published in 2006. Journalist Ina Hartwig moderates the evening.
Hélène Cixous (*1937 in Oran, Algeria) is a professor, feminist, writer, poet, philosopher, rhetoritician and literature critic. She became known in France as an essayist with the work “L’Exil de James Joyce ou l’ art du remplacement” (1968). Cixous’ oeuvre includes novels, plays and poetry in which she decisively represents the image of a feminine writing style. Her work with psychoanalysis, dreams and mythology helps shape her writing’s central topics, which work through and play with language. Here, she addresses, “stirs” and “stirs up” concepts like identity, death, masculinity, femininity, writings, writing and the body.
A one-day internal workshop on the following day at the Akademie Schloss Solitude with Helene Cixous continues the discussion on the “Aléthérature” literary resistance.
A cooperation between the Literaturhaus Stuttgart, Institute Français de Stuttgart and the Akademie Schloss Solitude.
With the support of the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Admission: 8/6/4 Euro
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