CIXOUS IRIGARAY KRISTEVATHE JOUISSANCE OF FRENCH FEMINISM This book is a poetic study of three French feminists Luce Irigaray Julia Kristeva and Hlne Cixous the holy trinity of French feminism. EXTRACT FROM THE INTRODUCTION Hlne Cixous Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva all have different modes of writing. There are times when they are writing in the sober tones of a cultural critic philosopher or psychoanalyst. They have strident feminist voices Cixous and Irigaray more than Kristeva. They are personal reminiscence modes. They have a relaxed informal mode in interviews. And most powerful of all they have lyrical modes. Thus Cixous the most poetic of the three will break into a visionary ultralyrical way of writing. Luce Irigaray too changes less frequently than Hlne Cixous from a critical to a lyrical form. Thus in a piece such as When Our Lips Speak Together Irigaray will write poetic sentences such as Kiss me. Two lips kiss two lips and openness is ours again. This is the kind of phrase which never appears in most cultural theorists outside of quotation marks. One doesnt find Jacques Derrida Jacques Lacan Gilles Deleuze Jean Baudrillard Mikhail Bakhtin Michel Foucault Roland Barthes or JeanPaul Sartre writing kiss me very often. What marks Hlne Cixous Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva apart from many cultural theorists and philosophers then is this personal confessional and poetic way of writing where they directly address the reader as the other the you in an intimate relationship. Derrida Foucault Baudrillard and Jakobson are rarely if ever this personal. KELLY IVES has written widely on feminism philosophy and art. Her previous books include Julia Kristeva and Hlne Cixous. The text has been revised and updated for this edition. Illustrated with a revised text. European Writers Series. Bibliography and notes. 188pp. ISBN 9781861714206. . REVIEW ON AMAZONThis text offers a useful introductory overview. it certainly provides a reasonably clear summary. To its credit