The Staging of the Self-The Theatre and Hélène Cixous

The work of Hélène Cixous reflects an unremitting engagement with the representation of subjectivity and intersubjective relationships, proferring '...possibilities of social and subjective transformations'. 1 This engagement is central to Cixous' theatre, and indeed developments in Cixous' representation of the self and other can be charted through her theatre.

In The Newly Bom Woman, Cixous' critique of Westem culture is founded upon an analysis of its construction of difference in terms of hierarchised binaries. 2She subsequently decries the Hegelian dialectic as a 'merciless vicious circle' 3 in its inability to tolerate the existence of a n equal other.The re-conception o f d i f f e r e n c e is fundamental to the political projections of Cixous' work, encouraging a focus on plurality and exchange, and resulting i n an acceptance of a l t e r i t y within the self.
A fundamental aspect of C i x o u s ' thought is the positing of w r i t i n g as the site in which t h e dominant discourses of s u b j e c t i v i t y can b e challenged: Everyone knows that a place exists which is not bound economically, p o l i t i c a l l y , t o all these depths a n d compromises.One which is not bound to reproduce the system.This place is writing.If there is an elsewhere which can escape infernal repetition, it's in this direction, where it writes itself, where it dreams, where it invents new worlds." 1 The other w i t h whom Cixous is specifically concemed in this text is woman, defined as immutably other b y Westem patriarchal culture and to whom subjectivity is denied.She appeals to women to inscribe t h e i r subjectivity through the liberating medium of w r i t i n g .These passages from Hie Newly Bom Woman are important as a starting p o i n t fora discussion of C i x o u s ' work on subjectivity.Yet they are arguably more relevant here through their reliance u p o n spatial metaphors which prefigure her e x p l i c i t adoption of t h e theatre as generically suited to the representation o f alterity: Thus 1 am searching for [...] a scene where a different type of exchange would be produced [...]There would be recognition of o n e by the other, and this recognition would take place thanks to an intense and passionate process of understanding/consciousness: at last each would accept the risk of the other, of difference, without f e e l i n g threatened by the presence of t h i s alterity instead rejoicing in the addition of the unfamiliar to the self and what is discovered, respected, encouraged and supported in that encounter. 5xous insists that the acceptance of the other within the self, and the consequent projection of a plural self are fundamental to any project of writing. 6She refers both to the plurality ofher own self and the acute awareness of t h i s plurality as it is enacted in writing: Writing is the passage, entrance, exit, stay within me, of the other which I am and am not [...] of an u n c e r t a i n t y which acts as an obstacle to the socialisation of the subject. 8e theatrical form has come to occupy a position of c e n t r a l i t y in Cixous' aesthetics.This centrality can be viewed as strategic.However, her e a r l y work on the theatre did not represent the form as at all apposite to the representation of a l t e r i t y .Her first e s s a y on theatre, 'Going to the Sea/ the mother' 9 c o n s t i t u t e s a critique of t h e representation of t h e feminine in the theatre and attacks the theatrical form itself as govemed by patriarchal stmctures of v o y e u r i s m and exhibitionism which exclude t h e representation of the female subject.Cixous defined her engagement with the theatre as politically motivated, as forming a continuum with her demands in The Newly Born Woman, and as founded in her desire to f o r m u l a t e representations of t h e female desiring subject. 10r desire to reveal a n d represent t h e repression of the female subject informs her early theatre.The plays Portrait of Dora 11 and The Name of Oedipus.The Song of the Forbidden 5o£/y 2 stage subjectivity itself as a central theme.Both plays are complex works which explicitly evoke the intertexts of F r e u d i a n and Lacanian p s y c h o a n a l y s i s , whilst challenging t h e dominant role o f t h e specular in the constmetion of i d e n t i t y in the theatre.Following this reclamation o f the previously hostile genre of t h e a t r e to allow the representation of a specific other, that of the female subject, Cixous' approach to theatre evolves and allows her to specify theatre as a potential site and medium (analogous to the site of w r i t i n g in The Newly Bom Woman) in which dominant representations of subjectivity can be challenged.
Cixous* increased interest in the potential of theatre as form was reflected in the accompaniment of h e r n e x t two published plays by a series of essays which constitute the main body ofher thought on the theatre.The two majorplays.The Indiad or \he India of their dreams™ and The terrible but unfinished story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia.I4 have been perceived as signalling a shift in Cixous' aesthetic focus, a transition variously described as moving from t h e personal to the epic, from t h e self to the world, or from 'her story' to History.However, it is in the essays which accompany these plays that developments in Cixous' discussion of s u b j e c t i v i t y become most apparent; the plays can be seen to act as an illustration and projection of these changes. 15xous claims that the theatre's potential as a site for new representations of s u b j e c t i v i t y originates in a restmcturing o f t h e authorial self w h i c h is necessary when writing for the theatre. 16Ifher 'fictions' reflect a move towards aconnaissance of t h e self ( a n exploration of its plurality and state efflux), she presents her writing for the theatre as an explicit and progressive movement from t h e self t o w a r d s the other: I had to write several texts to put the rooms in order and to appease/pacify the self.Once peace has been won... wc can hope that the self will be silent and leave space for the world.[...] Let it withdraw until almost erased, and the huge empty beach on which it performed its noisy exercises will retum at last to other hosts, to the non-me, to passersby, to humanity.So enter the Others!I have the honour ofbeing the scene/ stage of the other." Cixous suggests that the process of writing for the theatre entails a reformulation of i n t e r s u b j ective relationships i n which the authorial self i s displaced.This displacement howeverrewards the author w i t h the 'delirious consolation' 18 o f finding h e r self m u l t i p l i e d through the characters of t h e play.Cixous asserts that the dominance of t h e authorial self i s inevitably undermined when writing for the theatre; the self b e c o m e s the site o f t h e other To reach it (the theatre] you have to reach this state of "selflessness"," this state of un-self, of dispossession of the self, which will make possible the possession of the author by the characters. 20e authorial self is demoted and spatialised: 'You can only arrive at the theatre with a self which has almost disappeared, which has been transformed into space [...]' 21 becoming '[...] not the hero of the scene, but the scene itself: the place, the opportunity of the other. 22xous extends her emphasis on the theatre as site of the other by evoking parallel movements towards the other in the roles of both the actor and the spectator.She describes the actor's art: What fearsome delight when he finds h i m s e l f other![...]! recognise my trembling j o u m e y in that of the actors.Acrobatic, the actors leap over the void l e f t by the self.Such detachment from the self t o meet the other to whom you give yourself over completely... 23 Cixous values the spectator's experience of t h e a t r e because of t h e possible identification with the other.Positioning herself a s audience in the context of 77ie Indiad, she claims: [...] if I can displace myself as far as India, and into strangers, that signifies that we are not so separate and impermeable as all that.We are sparks from the same fire. 24n Artaudian discourse, Cixous expresses the hope t h at identification with the other w i l l render t h e spectator co n s ci o u s of t h e i r c o m m o n humanity, mortality and 'heroic' potential.
However, such Utopian assertions of t h e power of t h e theatre to enable us to realise and reformulate i n t e r s u b j e c t i v e relationships fail to address Cixous' earlier c o n d e m n a t i o n of t h e p o w e r s t m c t u r e s in force in theatrical representation; neither the possible repression nor the equality o f t h e other is seemingly any longer a t stake.The state of'selflessness' attained b y author, actor and spectator w o u l d seem to entail a loss of s p e c i f i c i t y .Her discourse no longer engages with the representation a n d identification of women in the theatre which was fundamental to the project of'Going to the sea/ the mother ' , and w e witness n o problematisation of identification for the gendered spectator with an ungendered common humanity. 23is loss of g e n d e r specificity enables Cixous to create male characters for t h e theatre, something she claims was unattainable in her fictions d u e to her ignorance of t h e masculine libidinal economy.Theatre is described as revealing t h a t 'the human heart h a s no sex'. 26Sexual difference is to be established and inscribed through the physical presence of t h e actors as Cixous seems to be locating sexual difference at the level of anatomy, rather than that of libidinal economy: '...this I d o n ' t need to write.The actor, or actress gives us the body that we do not need to invent.And everything is authentic, everything is real.' 27 S u c h reliance o n concepts of authenticity and anatomy is far r e m o v e d from t h e political project o f The Newly Born Woman which indeed works to denounce and undermine their p r o m i n e n c e .
The two plays commonly associated with this stage of C i x o u s ' work.The Indiad or the India oftheir dreams and The terrible but unfinished story of Norodom Sihanouk King of Cambodia raise s e r i o u s questions as to the radical n a t u r e oftheir portrayal of the other.Both plays clearly attempt to mobilise recent historical narratives (the p a r t i t i on of India and the struggle for the political control of Cambodia) as allegories of the dangers of t h e intolerance and repression o f t h e other and posit altemative intersubjective economies.Whilst recognising that any allegorisation of such specific narratives (especially when enacted by and for different cultural and political audiences) is problematic, the representation o f a l t e r i t y in Cixous' plays would seem to contradict h e r claimed intentions.
In statements which remain n a ï v e and p a r a d o x i c a l l y colonialist i n n a t u r e, Cixous claims an afiBnity between India and the theatre: 'Indians, whether modest o r b o a s t f u l , possess an amazing directness.The whole of I n d i a is a theatre'. 28She proceeds further to employ India as a desired aspect of subjectivity: 'Theatre can give us back our t r a e dimensions, our depths, our heights, our interior I n d i a s ' . 29Cixous evokes an essentialised concept of t h e 'Indian self which serves to symbolise an altemative economy of difference, yet also succeeds in effacing d i f f e r e n c e t h r o u g h the overdetermination of p o e t i c allegory and the dominance of a u t h o r i a l voice.Jennifer Birkett points out the irony of s u c h dominance in the context of Cixous' earlier writing on the need t o liberate the theatre for women: What becomes of history in this play is what becomes of the feminine subject in patriarchal discourse.Colonised, expropriated, made up and made over into the mirror of more powerful others [...j 30 Birkett's description of h i s t o r y is to be imderstood as the mulititude of voices which are not permitted to contest Cixous' clear authorial identification, here with Gandhi, and the metaphorisation of t h e other.Representations of o t h e r n e s s within the plays are ultimately homogenised by the dominance of t h e r e c o g n i s a b le authorial voice of C i x o u s .Cixous succeeds in p r o j e c t i ng her o w n self t h r o u g h a multiplicity of c h a r a c t e r s yet fails to convincingly portray alterity on stage.Otherness is recuperated in order to provide suitable allegories for constmctions of s u b j e c t i v i t y ; India and its partition becomes an extended metaphor for the dangers of dominant, divisive stmctures of s u b j e c t i v i t y .Difference is anodyne and, ironically, is rendered a p o l i t i c a l as Anne-Marie Picard notes: [...][ The ¡naiad's] avoidance of the buming question of alterity; a sexed, raced, social and economic alterity which is diffused i n t o pretty clouds during the escape to the "platonic" skies of light blue pantheism [...] Differences are made but mere phenomena, incidents due to chance, variable forms animated by the divine will. 31

Cixous' play becomes an ironic reflection u p o n her own denunciation of the representation of t h e other in Westem culture which she describes in
The Newly Bom Woman: 'The other is p r es en t only to be reappropriated, retaken, its othemess destroyed.' 32Cixous' dramatic allegorisation of t h e partition of India d o e s not only essentialise and h o m o g en i se subjectivity through the concept of t h e 'Indian s e l f , but insists upon the fixity o f t h i s other, frozen a n d recuperated within poetic allegory.
In Hegelian terms, the establishment o f a n immutable other p r e c e d e s a corresponding reinforcement of the self.Indeed, Cixous' most recent theatre displays a shift in focus from representations of alterity to an exploration of the relationship between the authorial self a n d the theatre.The Story (that we will never know) 3i presents the staging of the scene of w r i t i n g itself a n d the dramatisation of t h e writing self. 34The play can be read as a problematisation of the inherent tensions between Cixous' adoption of t h e theatre as a privileged site of t h e other and the projection ofthe authorial self.
The Heideggerian concept ofthe poet as purveyor o f t r u t h s has become increasingly prominent in Cixous' writing and this play focuses on a p o e t ' s search for a meta-narrative, a lost story.The thirteenth-century Icelandic poet Snorri Sturlusson is commanded by the nordic gods to write them a narrative of v e n g e a n c e and murder a n d , to this end, is transported through time to find h i m s e l f a m i d s t the events ofthe saga ofthe Niebelungen.
Sturlusson, as poet, is thus participant in the unfolding narrative and capable of a l t e r i n g t h e course of e v e n t s , but is charged with the interpretation and delivery of a closed narrative.The projection of Sturlusson into this other scene represents a n exphcit insertion ofthe writing self a n d authorial voice into both the scene of w r i t i n g (the need to reconstruct the narrative) and the scene ofthe theatre which he experiences in its temporal and spatial immediacy.Sturlusson does not possess creative omniscience, and dramatic tension is maintained in the play as he attempts to both observe and participate in the narrative.His dilemma is foregrounded in Cixous' programme notes: What the poet wants is to find the truth.But in searching for it, he sees himself caught up in the web he watches unfolding.The past which was his object of desire gives way to the present [...] here he is a character in the narrative he hoped to recount.The story/history he hoped to tell seizes him and makes off w i t h him. 35e Story (which we will never know) thus deconstmcts the scene of writing, the process of narrative itself-but persists in embellishing the mythologisation ofthe poet-self.
A discussion of this play as engaging with issues of writing and subjectivity must centre on the association of Sturlusson, the poet self, with an archetypal other -Barout, the wandering rabbi. 36T h e association ofthe tropes of e x i l e and Jewishness with the poet figure stem from t h e projection of an authorial autobiography and can be found throughout Sturlusson refuses t o bow to pressure from t h e gods to deliver a narrative of division and repression, and enlists the rabbi's help in rewriting the scene and attempting to avert the tragic dénouement: Snorri: Rabbi, do you want to help me restart the world?Rabbi: Ifthat is God's will. 58xous projects the presence and acceptance ofthe other (Barout) as fundamental to the creative process, as necessary to any recuperation of the narrative or, implicitly, of H i s t o r y .However, the rabbi, B a r o u t , departs violently from the scene as he is murdered by Sturlusson in a fit o f rage.
Sturlusson is murdered by one ofthe principal characters ofthe play, yet remains on the scene to assist in the avoidance ofthe tragic ending: Snorri: Here is my night, everything has been said.On my deserted path/journey, 42 there are no kings, nor queens, nor fathers.At last I will rest. 43xous may intend us to read Sturlusson's murder a s the symbolic death ofthe author, the denial of n a r r a t i v e control and authority, brought about in part by the murder of the other, Barout.Authorial voice within Sturlusson's lost narrative has been undermined, yet the play in which he remains a principi h a r a c t e r continues.Cixous' essays on the theatre insist on a generic distinction; the difference between the writing officiions and writing for the theatre.In The Story (which we will never know), writing is no longer p r e s e n t ed as an unproblematic site of c o h a b i t a t i o n for self a n d other.The authorial voice and the inevitable appropriation ofthe narrative are shown to preclude unequivocal openness and equal exchange between self a n d other.Cbcous j u x t a p o s e s writing with theatre, dramatising the death ofthe author and the impossible search for a narrative.Yet Sturlusson does not leave the scene.He continues to influence the progression ofthe narrative and to act as the author figure w i t h i n the play.His final w o r d s constitute a lament that his text is lost and that the story will remain unwritten: 'No one will ever tell our s t o r y ' . 44The final w o r d s ofthe play serve ironically to remind t h e audience ofthe scene of writing rather than that ofthe theatre.Sturlusson, the powerless author figure o n the stage, refers i m p l i c i t l y to a higher authority; that o f C i x o u s , the author ofthe theatre which surpasses his text.This final acknowledgement undermines empha?" ^ on the death ofthe author, whilst the death ofthe other remains unrehabilitated; Barout is noticeably absent and does not retum to witaess the final d é n o u e m e n t .
Cixous' theatre has moved from p o l i t i c a l assertions ofthe narrative of the other towards an engagement in representations a n d metaphorisations ofthe other which serve primarily to articulate and represent the self./// Hie Story (which we will never know), theatre becomes less the Utopian 6 This insistence leads to a call for the revalorisation ofthe concept of bisexuality as one which accepts the presence of the d i f f e r e n t l y gendered other within the self.
Cixous' work.The association between Barout and Sturlusson is explicit in the play as demonstrated in the ambiguity of Sturlusson's response in the following exchange: Barout: Between you and I, Snorri Sturlusson, I believe I heard an obscure music of c o m p a s s i o n pass between those women.Snorri: Between us, Barout, I thought I heard it too." 7 ' . . .t h e concert of personalisations which call themselves I.' ibid., p. 154. 8ibid., p. 158: L'écriture, c'est en moi le passage, entrée, sortie, séjour, de l'autre queje suis et ne suis pas [...] d'incertitude qui font obstacle à la socialisation du sujet. 9H é l è n e Cixous, 'Aller à la mer'.Le Monde, April 28, 1977.In lhe French 'la mer' signifies the sea, yet the mother 'la mère' is clearly consciously evoked.10 -Hélène Cixous, 'Aller à la mer': Going to the theatre now, has to be undertaken politically, with the aim of c h a n g i n g [...] its modes of p r o d u c t i o n and expression.Time at last for women to retum to the theatre, its chance, its raison d'être, its difference [...] " H é l è n e Cixous, 'Portrait de Dora' in Théâtre (Paris, des femmes, 1976).