Helene Cixous Translatedby Peggy Kamuf p: g.neoc Insister Insister of By Helene Cixous Original Drawings by Ernest Pignon-Ernest Translated by Peggy Kamuf Stanford University Press Stanford,California 2007 -Stanford University Press Stanford,California EditionsGalilee,2006. EnglishtranslationPeggy Kamuf,2007 Originally published in France in 2006 by EditionsGalilee, 9rue Linne,75007Paris First published in theUK by Edinburgh UniversityPressLtd No part of thisbook maybe reproduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans,electronicor mechanical,including photocopying and recording,or in any information storageand retrievalsystem without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. A CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN978-0-8047-5907-6(cloth) ISBN 978-0-8047-5908-3(pbk.) Typesetin Bembo by ServisFilmsetting Ltd,Manchester,and printed and bound in Great Britain Contents I.Insister:How to TranslateThat? II.The Flying Manuscript III.The InfiniteTastesof Dreams IVIt'sMy Fault Postscript:From Life Notes Description of theOriginal Manuscript of Veils 5 53 121 169 179 183 189 'I haveoften declared my admiration for H e U ~ n eCixous,forthe person and forthe work: immense,powerful,somultiplebut unique in thiscentury.' Jacques Derrida Insister.. Insister ofJacquesDerrida ,','i' ," ,Y, ,'Y, -". ',"" ",'",'," , ,'I,' ',,',,- , " ::' ,;;, ,'" '-' ,-" ',:" :" :-"". J' 'It'sa vision:youandIaretwomiceinsportsclothes,two lilliputianbeings fullof life.And we'replayingwitha ball, football.Mymouseisstageright. Yoursisa hiftylittlemale andyou'regettingreadytoshootstagelift.Mylittlegirl mouseisthe goalkeeper.She goesbackand forthin frontof the goal.She's guarding, but atthe sametime she's very fright-enedof theshot; shelets gosharplittleyelpsof apprehension. Youarelookingatherenergetically.Notice:thedreaming womanisonyour side. Youcrouchlikea catreadytoshoot. Thegirlmousescreamsatthesametimeasshecannotstop laughing,sinceafter allit'sa game. You're goingtoscore,that's forsure.Aforceemanates fromyou. Yourlittlemuscledand centeredbody.Theotheragitatedonewhoisrunningevery-where.Allatonceyouburstoutlaughing:thespectacleif theadversarywhoisreally frightenedmakesyoulaughbut benevolently. 'Thetitleof thisdreamis:Scoring [Marquer].Itcomes tosignthistext.' Dream,April2005. 3 I Insister:How totranslatethat? - The chase of truth, that's our eternal conversation. - The chance of the chase.The chase of the chance - Irunaftertruth,Ichaseit.ChasingitIchaseit away,you say - Sussingthat chasing it youchaseit away,Isay - Iputinquestionallassayings,beginningwith sayingsandother meanings-to-say,andbeforebegin-ning,beginning with words - Thechaseafterhappiness,that'sStendhal'schase and mine aswell. - The question of truth obsessesme - Youobsessit.Oneneverknowswhoobsesses whom,whobesieges,retains,captureswhom,will havebegun what - Thequestionof veracity,evenmoreso;noone can proveanything about lying.Hence my relationto literature. - Which relation? - Chanceliterature.Noonewillevercatchit lyingortruth-tellinginflagrantedelicto.Literature, 7 neitherlienorveracity:noonewilleverprovethat Iam lying - That's why you have alwaysstayed in closest prox-imity to literature - Inclosestapproximity,intheneighborhood.No onewilleverprovethatIaminsideoroutside.Itso happensthat sometimesI happen to find myself there, lost naturally.Anaturally lost child. - But youdon't staythere.Literature isyour temp-tation.Between literature and you - There'snaught,butastep.Igive threelong lec-turesattheBibliothequeNationaleFran:.:, ',.' '"',"'-". " 1," ,'i -,-'" --,. , ,.' , -" "'-'",,,, ,.} ;,."" " ' ~ ' " ';", , ,_ " f ~ j , ,'" " ,,'-' ,,," ":,' -r '" ' , ".", , ~ . ,,.:', ,.,-anendtoitbycutting.Theinterruption,a'certain interruption' of a certaindialoguecan 'become the con-dition of comprehension and understanding,' he writes in Rams(p.21). '1 calledthen... toacertain interruption.'Tocallto theinterruption,tokeepthe desiredone alive. I recall that he himself runsor worksontheinterruption if thedream.Noticehesaysinterruptionandnot forget-tingof the dream. It would be necessary to reread the immense reading conductedinResistancesof thesubchapteron'The Forgetting of Dreams' at the beginning of Chapter 7 in theTraumdeutung,where EverythingisSaidabout those tangles that form knots in our throats and that lead him to dream about not answering, for the dream, to dream aboutdreamingwithoutansweringforthedreamed, forthedreamer,whiletalking,dreaming,without sayinganything,neither the yesnor theno,todream oftherewhereeverythingissaidwithoutconfession withoutinfringinguponthesecretthetherewhereof literature. 'There where': the very place ofresistance.'38 Where isTherewhere?There.Or where.In literasure. WhatishedoingwithFreud?Herubsshoulders with him, he meddles and fiddles with him. He Freuds with him. Joyce would say that he Frauds with him. He 161 istakenwithhim.Freud,nowthereishisother.A noble adversary who resists him enough for his victory not tobeeasy,thusfor him totakepleasure.He likes toreadwhat resistshim well.He becomesHerculean with Freud.For each round, and there have been many overtheyearsgoingbackalongtime,hepushes furtherbeyondthebeyond.Hebecomessuperher-culean.The tunic burns him,he isburning to analyze it.Afterall,Freud,psychoanalysis,isconcerned with whathauntshim,itisthroughanalysisthatheisbest outof tunewithhimself.Onedaypeoplewillstudy Derridanalysis. * Tocome back todreams.(Inotice thatIam defer-ringordrifting,just aswhenIwanttoapproachthe heart or the navel of a fiction,right away it centrifuges, justaswhenworkingontheseminarhecalls'The Beastand theSovereign,' hewantstoget tothe Wolf and tothe Lamb,but therethey gofleeing from week to week, or elsehe isthe one who flees,it ishe whom he flees,he the wolf and the lamb.) Whatheisabletodo,thework,themonumental reading,withtheotherdream,orthedreamof another.ForexamplewithFourmi.OrwithFichu. How he multiplies them, pluralizes them,makesthem teem like anthills,flutter and fall,setsthem ablaze with 162 ,. , , ",-:, , ;'.", , meaning.Asif hewerehimself thedreamerandthe analystthatheisnotproperlyspeaking,but isother-wise.Hetakeshisshare,partakes.Iobservehim.He places himself at the intersection of me and you. At the crossroads.Therewhereittoucheshim.Wherehe sympathizes.Wherepassionpasses,thepainfulaffect thatmakesbeinganimated.Therewherehehurtsin the other. Ashe will have confided to us about hurting in hismother in'Circonfession.' Tohurt intheother inoneself isnottosendthehurtintotheother,itis toreceiveintooneself theother'spain.Theother's anguishcomestohim,happenstohim.Itisnotan appropriation.Itisa co-sensibility.An impossibility of decidingbetweenwhomeandwhoyou.Sympathy. Compassion.A'hospitaliarity' of the imagination. Ahospitaliarrefinement,anervousnessforothers who rarely meet.On thetelephone,Isayto him:'My mother just fellflat!''Ow!' heexclaims.Not:ow!ow! ow!But:Ow!Asif hewerehimself hismother,my mother,themother- himselfwhofellflat.Iwas frightened.Butalliswell.OnedayIwillhaveto describethisparticularkindof high-intensityanimal ImagmatlOn. 163 The TealephoneCeremony Itelephonehimadream.Notgiventherefore, therefore not taken back. Tenderedoverthetealephone.Itseemedtome goodthatitwasgood,refreshingperhaps.Simple ceremony. Just aswith the Proustian cup of tea,there emerged fromitflowers,garden,oven,bakery,thenightsand daysofsexualdifferences,awholenaturalhistory museum,thelegendofcenturiesandsciences, Shakespeare,conjurations,separationsthat hormonize amorouscoloniesof insectsandotherpeoples,the memoriesof alltheGreek,Christiancultures,myth-ologies,treasuriesof literatures. History of a miraculous procreation. There has been gift.Indisputably.Ashe saystome with a smile, 164 ,; " ,, , ,;, ':,:(... Helenefurnishedmeunknowinglywiththeword Jourmi,givingittomethus.Herdreamgaveittome withoutknowingwhat itwasdoing,withoutknowing whatIwoulddowithit,withoutknowingperiod, because one can only givewithout knowing.Her dream gavemetheword notonlyasaterm thatIwould play on today without playing,but asa word,and no doubt a thing, a living winged being, that I had never before seen inmylife.Itisanepiphanyinmylanguageandinthe world that istuned to it.It isasif,blind, I had never seen 'jourmi' before,neither 'jourmi' the noun,nor 'jourmi' the phrase norJourmi the thing or the animal with or without wings,andeven lessthe Jourmi,someonenamed Jourmi. MyGod,whoisit?Whocould benamed Jourmi?And how he'schanged!?9 - Un fourmibien fourni,a well-equipped ant.Ifour-mish you with the word of thedream. - 'Her dreamgaveittomewithknowingwhatit wasdoing,without knowing what I would do with it, withoutknowingperiod,becauseonecanonlygive without knowing.' Itistruethatmydreamdoesn'tknowwhatitis doing.Itgivesitself.Withoutcalculating.But allthe same.Not to just anyone.But fearlessly.Unreservedly. Itelephonemydreamsthatdonotknowwhatthey aredoingonlytotheblindgiverwhoknowswhat 165 ......... _----knowing without knowing and without seeing means. Iam not asblind asallthat. Now the dream ishis.It ishisdream,hisfourmi,his fichu.He istheone who givestobe read.Gift isalto-gether in Reception,Interreception,Interrupception. Hedoeswith itashelikes.Nointerpretation.But a hymn.Hymenoptera to literature. * JD.dreaming Notebook1995 Herecountstome:threedreams.Threebits[bouts]if dreamshesays Threebitsof dreams.One:my fatherwasdeadandinhis coffin.I wassupposedto gowithotherstotakeit/himbythe handlestotransportthecoffin. At themomentIapproached thecoffinonthesideonthelateraledgea dog'sheadcomes out,a longnecklikea wholedog,immense,withattheend [au bout]a blackdog.HenceenormousdifJicultytaking hold of thething.Itissomonstrous. AndthesamenightIdream:It'sayoungboy,being huntedpursued,guilty,whohadsomeproblemswiththe police,was goingtobearrested,and whoasa kind ifarrogant provocationstepsuptotheedgeof a cafeandwithhishands full of appetizing things for animals,jish, meat, and hethrows 166 , , it,therewhereI knewthebeastswere goingthrowthemselves uponitandeat. An amazingimage:twentyorsodogsmad withhunger,rabid,whoteareachotherapart,who flayeach other andtheyoungmandidit forthat,toprovokea kindif animal cruelty, ofwar tothedeathamongthe animals, in order to grabwhathehadthrownthemtoeat.Strangehuh? That's allI recall.Dogsinbothif them. Youspoketome about Tobit'sdog[whoI put into Messie]. That dayDerek Attridge givesa lectureonCoetzee'srevenant dog.I allowedmyself totalkabout Tobit'sdog.I saida word aboutit,huh: [Helaughs JApieceof yourdog Thirddreamthisnight - ifanother sort: I aminchargeif anenormousairplane,a Boeing - andI must take careif this airplane,I moveit I managetoput itinthecornerif thecity I parkit.Chiracseemsrathersatiifted. AfterImustalways calculatethe flight/theft[ v o ~of thisairplane,asiffroma controltower,dashboard:thewholeworld 22 August 97 a largedogwasbiting my hand I wasdriving a vehicle,Jor a long time my hand wasinhis mouth, a big, enor-mouswolf-dog.WhatdoIdo?Itwasvery painful.I hadmy handinhismouth,hedidn'twanttolet go. Abigdog.I could have put pressure and hurt him. He had a wounded paw as well. Saturday30 August97 HowI dreamedthisnight!ItwasLacanwhowastalking showingoff,displayinglargeteethspectacularlylargeand 167 beautifulthatwerenothis.I saythisinthedirectionof my predecessor,onemustn'ttakecurafao,cureachaos- coffee-chaos- canmakeyousleep.- Mayone poseanobjection?Is itnecessarytobeill forcoffeetohavethisparadoxicaleffect? Heisveryembarrassed. DreamJD. May2002 I hada dream.My father playedthesaxophone verywell. After himItriedmyself.Nottheleastsound.Ididn'teven understandhow it was possible. Whiletellingyouthis,I asso-ciatedwiththeshofar.It'sdifficulttoblowintoareckless driver,thatis,chauffard,thishorn My uncle wasblowing/whispering a message: longs, shorts, breves,imagesofpower. * That MayI had novoice.He saystome: Stay ontheright (voice) track. 168 .) IV , , It'sMy Fault i' ' , -(Iam listening to him) -'Are you listening to me?' -'Yesof course.' 1 said he payscloseattention to what 1 say.He listens, watches, records, sends back 'what 1 say,' and that iswhat 1 mean.1 am speaking here of reading what issaid.This scene issoold and sofamiliarthat it does not stand out against a background; it blends into our perpetualconfab.Hepaysextremelycloseatten-tiontowhat 1 sayin my language,andevenmoreto whatmytonguesays,sincemytonguespeakshis tongue.1 believe1 amabletobeabletosaythatalarge part of thisattention, which isfinicky - yesit is,yesit is- isoverdetermined by the fact,which precedesus, of thiscommon good:wespeaktoeachother in the same language,language itself,the one he lovesbut to whichhecannotsurrender,the-onelanguage,the onethatmakeshimmonolingual,hisElementashe affirms.Whereasforme,Germantheother language will have protected me from the one.He isattached to Frenchasheistomelancholia.AcertainFrenchin whichhe breathes, aspiresto live,toremain,everything 171 happenstohim.InthisnaturalsupernaturalFrench, thecauseof hispassions,wefoundourselves/each otherwithoutbeingabletoexplainhow,without beingabletodoanythingabout,wesuddenlymet insideitsmilieuwithouthavingseenourselvesenter, alreadycultivating it likethe Jardinsd'Essaisin Algiers where westilltodaycontinuetotakewalks.He isthe guardian of the Jardin d'Essais.When he finds me there hecallsitthe'JardindesC.'(seeH. C.forLife),he supervisesmy goings.It isthislanguage,our uninher-itance,thatcommandedthisfirstalliance,onwhose basiswetogetherpracticeseparatelyheresy.He declaresthislanguage,thisfranC,attheborders, between thepublicand theprivate,asa having that is nothis.Noonecanimagineaworsetormentof thought. He iswith it/she isnot with him.He puts on anamazingscenewithit/her,andmakesawork without equal atonce finiteand nonfinite.And there-upon, master and slaveof hisslavemistress, jealous like a mortal, like a Moor, he desdemonizes her,he would killher,headoresher.HewillhaveaddressedHis Hymntoher,tohislanguage.Nomoreadmirable celebrationthanTheMonolingualismif theOther.No one hasever seen the like,a more ardent more raging, morelovingself-portrait.He lookstherelikenoone else.Well,thislanguagethatputshimbesideand outside himself in it,that holds him outside it inside it, 172 that possesses and dispossesses him,that loses him in its pocketthatheswearsisnothis,itisasif thisFrench werehisvirginhisdaughterhismotherhisloverhis twosonshekeepswatchover - what?thepurity?the honor? - likea jealousman.She/It isnot hisbut still better worse he has no other he claims(the fact that he loves,trains,gallopsmore than just one other with an admirableexpertise in no way diminisheshisphantas-maticswornfaith:thereisonlyonethatistheOne). He hasnot even lost it Hetakescareof it likeapurebred,maleor female, hemountsit,fawnsonit,flattersit,cares,combs, braids its hair,its mane, it straddles him or elsehe does. Hecannotbearthatanyonefiddleswithor forkshis tongue,that anyone filchesit.Or borrows it from him Moreover henever stopsinventing it:thus,noone before or after him And yethe'shappy if someonestealsit fromhim a littlebut intheneighboringfieldotherwiseitwould notexisttobedesired.HedoesnotdenythatIam fromthe Jardind'Essais.Italsohappens,whenheis 'tired,tired,' that he saysto me: you go ahead, then I'll applythespurs.But if Iscratched it,thislanguage,he would havemy hide. I saythat he listenstowhat I sayand firstof allhow I say,he hastrainedearsthat keepstrict watchthatIsay correctly,handsomely, it hasalwaysbeen and it isalways 173 likethiseachtimeand fromtheoutset,spontaneously. Ikeepwatchovermyself aswell,alittle,alittlealert lights up,very little but allthe same,assoon asI address him assoon asI sense we arespeaking language toeach other,thenit'sasif wewereplayingacertainnative music,fortwovoices,with intervals,twovoices,each haunted, especially his by a chorus that is often tense and conflictual, I keep an ear's eye on myself. We talk to each otheratarun,withrapidity,anxiety,jubilation,like fugitives, we are of the same flight in truth. Since forever I listen to him with head raised, my ear'seyes never stray from the somewhat somnambulistic funambulist that he is,knowingverywellthatateverystepheisrunning morethanonelanguage.NotonlydoIendeavorto allisten to him, but alsoin good faith,I want to listen to him,yes,Imakeitmytasktolistentohim,inother wordstoobey hispath markers.More than one listen-inginanIlisten.Andhowtolistentohimwelland thereupon listen to him when he equivocates and acro-batsin hisother French?Ido whatever it takes. Except forthemistake. There isa mistake.There isonly one, and it ismine. I don't know how, why,whence it comes, I make it,or rather it causesitself to be made by me,Iam itscom-mittedservant,Idon'tseeitcoming,moreoverif he wasn't theretoblow the whistleon it,stop it stopme, land the blow,stomp his foot,clap his hands, catch me, 174 shout:'Again!There it is!Youdid it again!' I wouldn't know anything about it. He never letsit pass It isserious? Yes,it isserious.It isa French grammar mistake,une fautede franfais . He shouts, I start in horror, Icould flopon ahairy back and wavemy littlemon-strouspawsin frontof my nose.I'm screwed,skewed, undoed.It'sasif I had it on my lips,I can tell from his irritated look. And naturallyrepetition compulsion Areal mistake,a true fault,therefore. And he,once again,derechif.(,Derechef' isfor him: Igivehim this word to suck on,he'll like it.) - How can youdothat,you?I willdenounce you, he says.- Correct yourself,he says-- Ichmijchteso gern Iwould liketo,Iwould soliketo.But itdoesnot givein.It,elle,she,shewho?It/She?Or me?She/It comes back. Every three months.Every three me's. What to do? The One of usisstronger than the other It would seem that she buildsup strength when and when she isrepeated.I cannot saythat I do it or that I donot do it. Iwant not todoit,or at leastI would like.Don't I want to listen to you?I am surethat I would surely not want tostand uptoyou. 175 Iam going toreread Resistances. This mistakedemandsan explanation. Inevermakeitinwriting.Thattoodemandsan explanation.It'snot that I chase it off the paper.There must be something in the voice,in the other voice,in interlocution,aslopeahole,rightawayitslipsby,it getsahead of me.Or rather shedoes.There she is.It's a disgrace. You will never tire chasing after her.In 2004 aloneyoureportme fourtimes,if Iremember right. The lasttime,in September 2004.Again!I'm a pitiful sight,Irecriminatewithmyself,Idon'tunderstand myself,I panic.I moan: - Jenesaispasqu' est-ceque je peux fa ire ! - And there you goagain! Alas!Theresheisagain!There!There!Justabove. Three lines ago.40 He becomes indignant.Qu'est-ce que! - You,how can you - qu'est-ce-quate? - How can you askme that,you? Igrabforthe cauldron:it'snot my fault! (1)I cannot do it.(2)I thusdo the impossible.(3)If Idothe impossible,itcanonly be foryou.(4)Asfor me,Idonothing.It undoesitself through me in spite of me.(5)Allof thisisto please you IswearthatIwilldoeverythingIcandotoundo myself of it MetooIwonderhowIcanmakethismistake. Perhapsit'snotmymistake,notmyfault.It'snota 176 , , ' , , , mistake of my mother's.And what if it were a pied-nair mistake? And if it wasnot me but my brother?Iques-tionhim.Accordingtohim,no,it'snothis.Itismy fault,my mistake,without anydoubt. Icallmy daughter,the grammarian par excellence - Amistake? No,she'snever noticed anything It'sthushismistake,it'shis.Imeantheonethatis destined tohim,to Jacques Derrida. - It'sfor you that Idon't do it on purposeIsay. Will I ever see the end of it?How will I know it? At theend of how much timewithout mistakemayone think of oneself ascured? Absolved.Whitewashed like snow Have I not always faulted in his honor? For his advan-tage?Or formyadvantage?No,no.Whatbenefit?It doesn't even make me laugh. It would not be impossible. But you aresoscandalized.I would liketo be a mouse. And for there to be a hole.But I am merelyUngeheuer - It'stheonlyreproach you'll ever hear fromme in my life,he says. Ha!Here'saclueperhaps:he'sindeed counting on having alwayssomething toreproach me for. Astainon the tongue! - And you,you don't ever make a mistake? Here I ask him an indiscreet question,with caution, timidity,courtesy,curiosity,andtheobscurefearof 177 l accusinghim.Me,Ihavenevercaughthimoutina mistake,neveraFrenchmistake,nomistakeorfault dedicatedtome,nottheleastweakness,nofaultfor whichIcouldreproachmyself congratulatemyself as the cause. But who knows ifby chance, in my absence? Not that Iwant tomake him ever confess - Never.Inever makea mistake. His voice isclear,sure.Without the leastdoubt. - Inoticethat,asforme,hesays,Ihavekepta number of superegotricks from my school days. Iam thusalone with my fault(and hisreproach) How not togoon deserving hisreproach? 178 '" .-q;:,~ : S ' .'ff , ".' , , ,'. " 'I':'~ . , -, Postscript FromLife (Milewaiting JortheveiledverdictBoulevardRaspail 1995) - Men I firstknewyouyouwerestillBordelaise - I am JromMontaigne.I aminMontaigne.EveryyearI essayagain.I am goingtomakea tour,a tower if Montaigne - ThisafternoonI JeelliketakingupMontaigneagain - Takinghimupagain? - Areyoutakingissuewithmeagain? - I'mmakingitovertoyou.ImakeoverMontaigneto youaswell. - TwoFrenchsemiJews WethetwoFrench,judeo-marranoha!iJews. - Thealliancewiththesignifiers,wheredoesthatcome from? - Itcomes fromthealloy. Themixture[melange]. 179 _._------------------- You'remixingthings? - I'm mixing inthe angel fmets l'ange] next tothe statue. - Mo areyouthinkingoj? - There isa Gandhi who walks near a square. I have always had a strange emotionwithregardtostatues.Itissomeone. The personhimself,herself,thepersonisthere,Jortunately forhim or forher,but sad,outinthecold.Men I passby. Montaigne,intheLatinQuarter. - Theyarethere,thestatues.AndBalzac,doyougreet him? - TheBalzacishieratic,itismonumentalized. - Areyouthinkingof your statue? - Exactly.Thereisidentification.Menit'samatterof Gandhi,Montaigne,atthesamemomentI saytomyself:'at bottomitwouldreassuremetodieknowingthattherewasa statue.' And thenina contrarymovement,'butthat'sworse thananything. Theyarethereallaloneoutinthecold.' - Youwanttobereassuredanyway? - At bottom. - Youcanbereassured,youwillhaveone - ButnoI won't! - Mat areyoutalkingabout?! - But what are you talking about?Unlessyoutake charge of ityourself rightaway.(helaughs) - I'mnotkeenonit.I'dprifertobeonthebalconyup there. - I'mnotaskingyoutodoit,butallthesame. 180 , Imaginethat we werebeing overheard, hereright now. Now here'sa guy whoisasking her totake charge very quickly cifter hisdeathof havinga statueerectedtohim. - 'Hownottoobeyyou?' that'sDerrida. - Taketime. - I'mgoingtoseetoyourstatue,butnotpersonally. I promiseyouthatitwillbedone. - Itmustbeinthesun. Good,letusleaveourselvesa littletime. 181 Notes 1.JacquesDerrida,'Circumfession,'trans.Geoffrey Bennington,inGeoffreyBenningtonandJacques Derrida,JacquesDerrida(Chicago:Universityof ChicagoPress,1993),26. 2.Jacques Derrida,Geneses,Genealogies,Genres and Genius: TheSecretsif theArchive,trans.BeverleyBieBrahic (Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press,2006). 3.TheFrench'g'ispronouncedliketheEnglish'j,' whereastheFrench'j' ispronounced liketheEnglish 'g.' (Tr.) 4.'Circumfession,' 6-8. 5.'Hearing' here translates ouie.What cannot be rendered isthe form of thisword, in which can alsobe read and heard oui,yes,but with a feminineending,asif tosay: shewhoisyessed.Derridaalsosoundedthiscrossing between hearingand affirminginUlyssesGramophone: 183 L HearSayYesinJoyce,trans.TinaKendallandShari Benstock,inDerrida,Actsif Literature,ed.Derek Attridge(New York:Routledge,1992).(Tr.) 6.JacquesDerrida,'PsychoanalysisSearchestheStatesof ItsSoul,' trans.Peggy Kamuf, in Derrida,Without Alibi, ed.PeggyKamuf (Stanford:Stanford University Press, 2002),279. 7.Ibid.,240-1. 8.This isa reference to an essay-lecture by Derrida, 'Titre a preciser'('Titletobespecified'),thefirstsectionof which istitled 'Le titrier.' In the lecture, Derrida defies hisaudiencetoknowwhether,withthistitle,they arehearingtwowords,articleplusobscure,perhaps invented noun,or elsea four-wordsentence:Letitrey est,thetitleisthere.Totitrer,titrate,istoascertainthe amountof aconstituentinachemicalmixture;the Frenchtermalsohasthesenseof assayingmetalsin alloys(cf.'Titrea preciser'inDerrida,Parages[Paris: Galilee,1986]).(Tr.) 9.JacquesDerrida,H. C. forLife, ThatIstoSay. .. , trans. LaurentMilesiandStefanHerbrechter(Stanford: Stanford University Press,2006),7. 10.Ibid.,5. 11.MicheldeMontaigne,'OnFriendship,'Oeuvrescom-pletes(Paris:Gallimard,BibliothequedelaPleiade, 1967),187. 12.Geneses,18. 184 13.'Va-t-il nousdechirer avecun coupd'aileivre?':thisis a firstunmarked quotation from Mallarme's sonnet,'Le vierge, Ievivace et Iebel aujourd'hui.' In the following section,titled'Aujourd'hui,' theseallusionsor quota-tionswill proliferate.(Tr.) 14.'PsychoanalysisSearches...,' 242-3. 15.Ibid.,257. 16.Ibid.,279-80. 17.Tu,the second-person familiar subject pronoun, has the same form asthe past participle of taire,tosilence,asin 'II s' esttu,' he fellsilent.(Tr.) 18.Geneses,30-1. 19.H.C.for Life,7. 20.HeleneCixousandJacquesDerrida,Voiles(Paris: Galilee,1998),25;Veils,trans.GeoffreyBennington (Stanford:Stanford University Press, 2001), 20;[hence-forth,referenceswillbegiveninthetexttopagesin both the original and the translation;citations from the translationwilloccasionallybemodifiedtoreflectas closelyaspossibleCixous'sreadingof Derrida'stext. (Tr.)] 21.Don'tlosethethread,that'stheinjunctionthat Penelope pretended to give herself, but alsothe feint or thefiction... 'Not evenaquestionof pretending,as shedidoneday,tobe weaving a shroud by savingthe lost threads[les fils perdus:homonymically, the lost sons], thuspreparingawindingsheetforLaertes,Kingof 185 Ithacaandfatherof Odysseus,fortheveryonethat Athena rejuvenated by a miracle' (Voiles,25;Veils,22). 22.H.Cfor Life,2. 23.'PsychoanalysisSearches... ,' 256. 24.Ibid.,253. 25.Ibid.,256-7. 26.Ibid.,259. 27.Thenames.Namesof Countries,Namesof Cities. GoodAirs[BuenosAires],SaintJacques,SaintPaul, bearers of signs,omens to which he lent an incredulous and worried ear.They exalt fears and desires by making these placesmore personal,thusmore secret and more powerful. 28.'Verdict' in Jacques Derrida: another subject for a thesis. Verdict,inFrench.Isthereevenonetextthatisnot haunted by it? 29.'PsychoanalysisSearches... ,' 256. 30.Ibid.,256-7. 31.RereadhereSpirale,no.195,'Fidelitea plusd'un,' March-April2004.Howpast,terriblypast,terribly present,howchangedisthisbeautifuljournalissue, concerned with theaporiasofJ.D.thinking.I want to paytributeheretoGinetteMichaud,amagnificent sleuthintothelimboof limbos,whoseliminalexplo-rationsextendthecriticalcontinentstobeyondthe Thule islands,powerful and weak people like, let us say, the Inuits. 186 32.JacquesDerrida,Resistances- of Psychoanalysis,trans. PeggyKamuf Pascale-AnneBrault,andMichaelNaas (Stanford:Stanford University Press,1998),24-5. 33.JacquesDerrida,'Fourmis,'inHeleneCixousand Mireille Calle-Gruber, Rootprints, trans. Eric Prenowitz (London:Routledge,1997),119. 34.Ibid.,p.120. 35.Resistances,27-8. 36.Healmostalwayspitiesthechild.Save- naturally,in thecaseswhereitisthevoicesof womenthathe arrangestoletprotestapartfromhiminhim,in those fictionaldialoguesexpressing hiscompassion for women, his need for justice, his love for them, and thus the femininepart that herecognizesin himself. 37.Resistances,12. 38.Resistances,24. 39.'Fourmis,' pp.124-5. 40.Thecorrectsentencewouldbe: Jenesaispasceque je peux faire,Idon't know what Ican do.The mistakeis tousetheinterrogative,qu'est-ceque,whatis... , instead of therelativeobject pronoun,ceque.(Tr.) 187 Description of theOriginal Manuscript of Veils Anautographmanuscript,writtenduring atripto South America in November 1995, and containing the firstdraftsof thetext: - Awritten sketchof thebeginning,followedbya seriesof notes,titled'Pointsdevue piquessur 1'autre voile,' fivenumberedsheetsin theauthor'shandwrit-ing,29X21 cm,in blue ink. - Twostatesof afirstdrafttitled'Pointsdevue piques sur l'autre voile,Buenos Aires,Leverdict';one original in blue ink, the text crossed out with a line and theotherphotocopied,eachconsistingof tennum-bered sheets in the author's hand,29X21cm, written on recto and bearing annotations or additions on verso. - Anewstate,titled'VERASOlE,'bearingthe subtitle'Pointsdevuepiquessur l' autrevoile,'nine-teen attached tablet sheets,29X20cm,in black ink. 189 - Amiscellaneoussetof preparatory notes,draftsof sentences,indicationsoforder,ondiversekindsof paperindifferentformats:fourunnumberedsheets, two sheetson the back of memo paper from the Aspen TowersHotel,onesheetonthebackofaletter addressedtotheauthor,25November1995from BuenosAires,fourunnumberedsheetsfoldedintwo, written in blue and blue-black ink, two sheets folded in four and showing the first indications of titles, one sheet from the note pad of the Grand Hotel d'Europe in Saint Petersburg with a yellow annotated Post-it affixed,one sheetonthebackof abilldated28November1995 from EdicialSA. Tothese are joined two documents by Helene Cixous, with the firststatesof ' Sa voir': - A small cardboard-covered notebook (13X1Oem), titled'Dawn,' dated19 January1995. - Thirty tablet sheets(10.5X15.2cm). Allthisisinawhitecardboardfilefolderbearing the insigniaof HarvardUniversity,itself placedinsidean orangecardboardfolderwithflapandelasticholder, 32X25cm, on which are numerous handwritten notes. 190 PHILOSOPHY Insister of Jacques Derrida Helene Ci xous Translated by Peggy Kamuf Helene Cixous isarguably the most insightful andunbridledreader of Jacques Derrida today.InInsister shebrings a unique mixture of theoreticalspeculation, breath-taking textual explication andscholarly erudition to an extremely closereadingof Derrida's work, always attentive to the details of his thinking. At the same time, Insister isanextraordinarily poetic meditation, a work of literature andof mourning for Jacques Derrida the person, who was a close friendand accomplice of Cixous's from the beginning of their careers. 'Ihave often declaredmy admiration for Helene Cixous,for the person and for the work: immense,powerful, somultiple but unique in this century.' Jacques Derrida 'Insister ofJacques Derrida, soexpertly translatedby Derrida's principal andmost faithful translator, Peggy Kamuf, is anindispensable, daring, heartfelt andmovingbook...It presents a flawless, committed reading that isin the spirit of Derridainits serious playfulness, its poetic sinuousness,its elegant reasoningandrhetoric while alsobeing wholl y in Cixous' own singular voice. Thisisnot merely a study of Derrida, it isa haunting dialogue with hismemory andwith his phantom.' Julian Wolfreys,Professor of Modern Literature and Culture, Loughborough University Helene Cixous isEmeritus Professor of Literature at the Universite deParis VIII.One of the mostcelebrated contemporary writers and theorists, her recent publications inEnglish include Dream I Tell You(2006),Portrait ofJacques Derrida as a Young Jewish Saint (2004), Helene Cixous: The Writing Notebooks (2004), and, with Jacques Derrida,Veils(2001). Cover illustration: OriginalDrawing ErnestPig non-Ernest, 2005 Cover design:Michael Chatfield StanfordUniversity Press ~http://.dztsg.net/do