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alexandrahorner's review
4.0
Reading Cixous continues to fill me with wonderment and the shock of truth (of life?). Her writing sets me aflame, I gallop along the text, with the text, behind the text. Reading her is no light work, however, and the process of deconstructing this interview and the following essays was a slow process as I attempted to absorb the multiple layers of meaning. As much of the wordplay is in French, (the contributions by Derrida especially), I found myself going back and forth with the translator's notes, attempting to place the meaning(s) of the text. The use of symmetry, coupling, mimesis, metaphor, fable, the abstract and the poetic form all woven together so distinctively; Cixous continues to be one of my favorite writers, and with each essay/interview/fiction I read I am reminded that there is truly no-one else quite like her. Furthermore, Mireille Calle-Gruber's essays regarding Cixous' form and writing were lyrically prosaic and are probably the best pieces of 'analysis' I've read of Cixous' work so far. An analysis conducted using the language and structure (a term I use incredibly loosely) of Cixous reads less like an essay and more like a wandering mediation, to its benefit. As the writing of Cixous often defies genre and any rigidly structured form, a point that Calle-Gruber explains sublimely, to me these essays demonstrated that the best (if not the only) way to truly understand the work of Cixous, to write (about) it, is to write with the body, to participate in the text, to play with language and oxymoron. Overall, Rootprints is an interesting compilation of works regarding Cixous, and one that I would recommend to fans of her writing.
ritakd's review
4.0
A beautiful, non-linear exploration of what it means to be human. Blurs the lines between fiction/non-fiction, real/surreal, knowing/unknowing.
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