The Breast-thing in Hélène Cixous' Work

Abstract

This research analyzes the fictional performative unfolding of the mother’s breast in four narratives by Hélène Cixous: Hyperrêve (2006), Cigüe: vieilles femmes en fleurs (2008), Ève s’évade: la ruine et la vie (2009) e Homère est morte… (2014). In order to do so and for a better understanding of the proposal presented in this article, the analysis will be divided into three moments: first, the act of being fed by the mother, Éve, through the literary performance of the narrator-daughter, who is present in the four Cixous’ narratives. Second, the writing displacements performed by the narrator when her mother’s death is close, thus, the death of the mother’s breast, or, better said, the milk that feeds her literature. And, third, the reflection of how, in Cixous, the image of the mother’s breast presents itself not only as an object, be it a nourishing or erotic object, but, above all, as a thing, a breast-thing prior to any linguistic designation.