IntJPolitCultSoc DOI10.1007/s10767-017-9256-8 The Algerian Works of Hélène Cixous: at the Triple Intersection of European, North African and Religious Nationalisms SamuelSamiEverett1 #TheAuthor(s)2017.ThisarticleispublishedwithopenaccessatSpringerlink.com Abstract Thetheme‘Jewishconditionsandtheoriesofnationalism’,relatingparticularlytothe twentiethcentury,canbeconnectedtoHélèneCixousthethinker,throughherchildhoodexperiences inAlgeriaduringtheSecondWorldWar.Thereafter,shewouldspend10yearsinacountryonthe verge of what some have termed a ‘civil war’ between ‘European’ inhabitants, settled multiple generationspreviously,andanincreasinglyangry,marginalised,anddispossessed(Muslim)indig- enouspopulation.Importantly,CixoushasalsocalledonherexperiencesinAlgeriaafterAlgerian independence,whichisextremelyraregiventhatthevastmajorityofnon-Muslimdeparturestook placeupuntil1962.Inthisway,herearlylifehistoryandherintellectualtrajectory,positionedasa writerofgenderedandthenethnicdifference(fromParis),andtherelationshipsshegarneredwith Algerianwomeninthe1990sduringthedarkyearsofviolenceinAlgeria,aswellashersubsequent processofreturntoAlgeriaagainstabackdropofanarrowlydefinedFrenchnationalidentity,areat atripleintersectionwiththeevolutionsofAlgerian,FrenchandJewishnationalisms.Thispaper engages with the ambiguities and tensions of Hélène Cixous’ experience of and writing about AlgeriacombiningcloseanalysisofherliteraryproductionwithourmeetingsinherParisianhome. Keywords Cixous.Algeria.France.Jewishness.Deconstructionism.Postcolonialism ...I would hold on to what I call Bmy algeriance^, a vast set of rather disparate reflections that arise around the notions of country, native country, country of origin, namesofcountryandaround thisword ‘country’, which burrows intothe mind’s wax and,intotheheartofwhoeversaysit,spreadslapaixetlapagaille,peaceandchaos, theoneasmuchastheOther. HélèneCixous,SoClose(2007,p.10-11) * SamuelSamiEverett [email protected] 1 WoolfInstitute&StEdmund’sCollege,UniversityofCambridge,12-14GrangeRoad, CambridgeCB39DU,UK Everett Introduction The above citation gives insight into how Hélène Cixous reflects on the notion of ‘country’ with particular reference to Algeria; the reification and celebration that this can evoke, the affective allure and danger that this can elicit. Her ‘disparate reflec- tions’ are at the heart of the complexity that is represented by Jewish Algerian identification towards Algeria from France and what, by corollary, one might term a, variously positioned, postcolonial Jewish condition in France. Cixous’s mid twen- tieth century struggles against misogyny and discrimination attuned her to the pater- nalism of nationalist narratives that have, at one time or another, bolstered repression and inequality towards minorities, national, religious, or otherwise. Such injustice she has experienced first-hand across each geographic axis of her career that has spanned over half a century (she was first published in 1967). Born 5 June 1937, Hélène Cixous’s early life was afflicted by two of the most important historical occurrences for the French nation in the modern period: on the one hand, the Second World War and the Holocaust, and on the other, the indepen- dences of formerly colonised countries, of foremost symbolism in this regard, Algeria. As Cixous puts it ‘I was born in an opposite age: an age of nationalisms, of re- nationalisms’ (1997a: 189) the force of which has been consistently intertwined with the geographies of her experience. The most prominent of these geographies lies in ‘the West’, her ties are perhaps strongest with Paris (where she lives), Osnabrück (her mother’s birthplace), London, Dublin, and New York (where her daughter resides). All of these countries speak her languages of predilection: French and English (she received her agrégation in English literature in 1959). In parallel, ‘the Islamic world’, her place of birth and le Maghreb, as former French North African colonial posses- sions are referred to in France, such as Oran, despite her lack of association with the Arabic language, has left an indelible trace on her vision of the world. Less explicit perhaps, but just as important, the Near East, and in particular Jerusalem is the ‘bubbling volcano’ (Cixous, personal correspondences and interviews, 22 June 2011) that underlies much of her work. In order to avoid the war of independence (1954–621), Cixous left Algeria to go to University in France in 1955 (1997a: 204). The end of that war marked the end of her immediate contact with Algerian nationalism. However, since the revitalisation of religious andcivilisationalnationalismsinAlgeria,inthepost-colonialperiod,2particularlyduringthe 1990s,shefoundherselfoncemorethrownintorhetoricalcombatagainstsuchideas.Thus,in whatfollows,IpayparticularattentiontowhatmightbetermedherAlgeriantexts(spanning 1993 to 2010), that is, writing in which Algeria acts as a political geography or imaginary, throughrelations,memoriesanditstenseambiguitywithFrance.Thischoiceismotivatedby theimportanceofwhathasbeencalledthe‘postcolonialturn’inthehumanitiesthatoccurred 1Thesedatesgiveafixedchronologicalstructuretoaconflictofwhichnationalautonomywasacentralelement asearlyastheimmediatepostSecondWorldWarperiod. 2Referringheretothetimeperiod;elsewhere,‘postcolonial’withoutthedash,isusedtosignifythetheoretical construct. TheAlgerianworksofHélèneCixous in the 1990s.3 Though its intellectual deployment coincides with the dark years (les années noires)ofAlgeriancivilunrest,intheFrenchcase,suchaturnalsorelatestoakeyperiodofstrain onwesternliberalnationalismi.e.thetensionbetween‘Eurocentrism’andtherecognitionthatitis epistemologicallynecessarytodecolonizeperspectivesregardinginter-ethnicsocialrelationsand intellectualproduction.InFrance,thisintellectualanxietyisfundamentallyrelatedtoAlgeria. Administratively,Algeria‘formedapart’ofFranceformorethanahundredyearsduring the period of its conquest and colonisation (1830–1962). Some of the world’s most bloody instances of decolonisation took place during the war of Algerian independence. As a consequence of the intertwined histories of these two countries, Algeria’s largest diaspora resides in France. Algerian Muslims and their descendants in France are estimated at four million(Labat2012:77).In1962,AlgerianJews,whosepresenceintheMaghrebfarpreceded theFrenchinvasionandwhoweremadeFrenchinthenorthernterritories4undertheCrémieux Decree 1870, represented over 140,000 people (Le Foll-Luciani 2015: 8). The majority left Algeria for France during the war or at independence (unlike the majority of Jews from MoroccoandTunisia).Some70,000Harkis(menandtheirfamilieswhohadbeeninvolvedin a variety of different ways with the French army or administration during the war of independence),andapproximatelyamillionpredominantlyRomanCatholicPieds-noirsalso make-up thesizeable minority in France ofwhat might be termed French-Algerians(Cohen 1980).Thus,approximately10%oftheFrenchpopulationtodayhasaconnectiontoAlgeria (Stora and Harbi 2004). Consequently, it is Algeria that has most resonance as a symbol of postcolonialism in France and the various political questions that this has raised regarding variegatedlevelsofassimilation,nationalidentityanddiversity. IntheAnglophoneworld,HélèneCixousisprincipallyknownforherworkasafeminist who conducts literary criticism through a ‘deconstructionist’ lens. This methodology or weltanschauunggivesspacetocomplexityandnuanceandunpacksmultiplesemanticlayers: social, political and semiotic. Complementing her gendered intellectual production, in more recent years, her work has become more reflexive and historically centred. She has aptly marriedanavant-gardewritingstyletoherownlifestory,forexampleconcerningthemultiple neologismjudaïtésandherowntermAlgérience,theFrenchlanguageprogressiveform-ience referring to her Algerian past (Cixous 1997b). Striking a chord with numerous scholars, interestintheworkofHélèneCixousonAlgeriainrelationtoherJewishnesshascomefrom avarietyofacademicquarters.Theseareanchoredprimarilyinliterarystudiesbutrelatealso to areas such as Jewish (Silverman 2009), Mediterranean (Segarra 2013), French (Stevens 2004;Debrauwere-Miller2007),NorthAfrican(SteinandSlyomovics2012)andpostcolonial studies(Norton2011andSajed2012). CixoushaswrittenasanAlgerian(1998),discussedfeelingsof‘notbeingFrench’(2003, Cixous,2007a,b)andshownadegreeofunitytowardsthehistoricalpositioningofAlgerians andtheiroffspringinFrance(1997b).Thismakesherexceptionalasshewritesagainstalarge 3ThefieldofSubalternStudies,originallyonSouthAsianhistory,whichwouldhavethemostsignificantimpact on History and Literary Criticism (and the Social Sciences more generally thereafter), published its first anthologyin1988andsecondin1997. 4Inthesouthernterritories,orlegrandsud,JewswerenotmadeFrenchandcontinuedtoliveasindigenous religious subjects of the French State, labelled Israelites (see Sarah Stein 2014 on the subject of French citizenshipandJewsfromtheSouthofAlgeriaunderFrenchAlgeria) Everett bodyofworkandaconcreterealityofAlgeria-bornformerMarxistJewishthinkerswho,since the 1990s (Schiffer 2010), have aligned themselves to a US American neo-conservative doctrine that is intolerant of criticism, of whom Bernard Henri Lévy is an example (Segré 2009:14).Cixous’spoliticsoftheselfaredistinctfromthismajoritythatoftengivescredence totheinnatefundamentsofJewishidentity,origin,faith,politicsorcommunity.Thus,onthe one hand, some of these authors, and in particular intellectuals who have written about Sephardic culture in the Middle East and North Africa and been politically active to that effect,considerthatCixous’sreflectionsofJewishArabness(Fr.Arabité)representafallacy:a politicallycorrectconstruct(Trigano2012).Ontheotherhand,postcolonialreflectionssuchas thoseofAnneNorton(2011)questionCixous’Algeriannationalsolidarity,insistingthatshe could and should have gone further in her rapprochement with Algerian womanhood. In betweenthesepositions,theambiguityofCixous’sthinkingspringsfromtheuniquestructural, historical and cultural tensions of Algerian Jewish existence that pull and push with and against‘Arab’indigenousness(Butler2015:x). Itwasviathetelephone,arecurrentsymbolofmodernityinHélèneCixous’stexts,thatshe andIcommunicatedforthefirsttimein2010.Shemadeitclearfromthebeginningthatshewas notinterestedintheconceptof‘community’;shewouldnothaveherworkrepresentedasan exampleof‘inter-communitydialogue’shetoldme.Shewasparticularlyconcernedbysuchan ‘angle’ since Algeria, I would later discover, is her tense link, her association but not her adherencetotribalism,inbothitsreligiousanditsindigenousforms.5Afterthatconversation,I spentalmost2yearsine-mailcontactwithHélèneCixousbeforefinallymeetingher.Muchof the material in this article is therefore ‘co-constructed’: the emotional outputs expressed are ‘interpersonal’(Bondi2007:243),existingrelationallybetweenresearcherandresearched. In what follows, I juxtapose Cixous’s textual and oral production to my experiences and interactionswithher.(1)IfirstconcernmyselfwithCixous’searlylifetrajectoryandformative experiences.ThisincludesthespecificitiesofhermaternalGermanJudaisminAlgeriaandthe ambiguitiesofhowsheincorporatesherpaternalBerberancestryintoherhistory.Inlightof this, I discuss the intersection of her ideas around judaïtés with regard to the ambient French-Algerian anti-Semitism in her early life prior to the Second World War and in its relationshiptoEuropeannationalism.(2)Second,movingintothe‘darkyears’ofinternecine Algerianviolenceinthe1990s,throughaparticularlypublictextofhers(1997b)Ilookathow Cixousmobilises herAlgériance—one ofmanymotsparapluie that sheissofond of—as a trope against exclusivist and reified identities that fuse together Islam and Algeria in the countrywhereshewasbornandEmpireandFranceinthecountryinwhichshenowlives.To do this, I concentrate on her (in part imagined) rapport with the revolutionary Algerian moujahida (independence fighter) Zohra Drif, whose humanism has been repudiated by Bernard Henri Lévy for having employed what he terms terror tactics during the war of independence (2012). (3) Finally, I turn back to the theoretical conundrum in Cixous’ work aroundpostcolonialismrelatingtothecriticismlevelledagainstbothherpurportedlyexcessive and lacklustre Algerian solidarity. By way of nuance to such attacks, I relay how French secularism (laïcité), the bicycle and the telephone, symbols of her colonial experience of modernity, demonstrate Cixous’s power as an author, sitting between ideologies but not 5IreflectedonthiswithallthepoignancyasIwascallingParis(whereIhavelonglived)veryearlyinthe morningfromadeathlysilentancientgraveyardinCornwall(whereIwasborn).Itwasthussomehowapttobe discussingHeleneCixous’sAlgerianpastviathetelephonicteleporter,assheputsit,surroundedbytheremnants ofCornishtribesmenandtribeswomen. TheAlgerianworksofHélèneCixous partakingofthem.IarguethatCixousshowsremarkablesolidaritywiththesufferingofboth thevictimsofthedarkyearsinAlgeriaduringthe1990sandanoften-alienatedpopulationof FrenchborndescendantsofNorthAfrica.Nevertheless,shefirmlyacknowledgesherposition andprivilege, history and status betweenFrance andits elsewhere, bethat Oran,Jerusalem, NewYork,LondonorDublin,preciselytodemonstratetherichnessofplurality,thusdemon- strating her understanding of postcolonialism as an ethos and not simply a politics of opposition. EarlyLife Priorto the2011July andAugust summerholidaysthat bringintra-murosParisian life to a halt,IvisitedHélèneCixousinherapartment.ThenameCixoushasalwaysbeenfamiliarto me, couched as I have been in social contestation both Jewish—from the Oran region of western Algeria—and non-Jewish—from London. My aunt, who passed away during my childhood,hadbeenamongthefirststudentcohortstoattendthewomen’sstudiescentrethat Cixousspearheadedin1974(situatedinVincennes,ParisVIII).Yet,itwasHélèneCixous’s mother’snameKlein that I saw ontheintercomof her apartmentblock whenI first visited. Prior to this first face-to-face meeting, we had spoken over the telephone and then correspondedbye-mail.Initially,Ihadfoundstrange,butthentookto,thiswrittencommu- nicationthat wasconductedonher sidevia a, orvarious (Iremainunsure),virtualandreal, abstract and concrete, intermediaries: Annie, Khadija, Hélène, were the names of my inter- locutors…IwonderedifthismultiplicityofsoundsandinferencesindicatedCixous’sphilo- sophicalpremiseofexperientialpluralityexpressedbywayofpolyphony. AFrenchnational,HélèneCixous’sfamilyname,whichshetodayprizesbutoncethought of replacing with her mother’s name (2010), is both ostensibly and aurally French and Maghrebi.TheonomasticoftheAlgerianfamilynameCixouswasdesignatedbytheFrench Rabbiandmid-colonialperiodresearcherMauriceEisenbethasbelongingtooneofthemain categories of Maghrebi origin: Berber; the autochthonous language of northern Africa from MoroccotoLibya.Thenamehasvariouslyevolvedas‘Cixous,Sakis,Sek-sek,Sescik,Sicsu, sikcik,Siksou,Souksi’.Thisroot(SKS)israreaccordingtoEisenbethandwaspronouncedin theindigenousmanneras‘Ksiksu’(1936:174).Eisenbethclaimsthat‘thenameCixouswasa watercourseinMoroccotothesouthofTazetotbetweenAin-AougdalandSdid-Nefatiinthe Boujadregion’and‘ofMuslimgenealogy’(ibid:156).Uponinvestigatingfurtherthenamein the French National Archives of the Overseas (Archives Nationales d’outre-mer, hereafter citedasANOM)intheregionofOranattheturnofthetwentiethcentury,Ifoundthatfamilies withthefamilynameCixousbegantogiveFrenchfirstnamestotheirchildren.Forexample, in the year 1911 Reine (née Malika—both names meaning queen in English) and Abraham named their daughter Claire (ANOM 2012). Notwithstanding the socio-economic markers indicated on these birth certificates, such as place of work, several local civil servants were namedCixousinOranby1916(ibid).Thus,bythetimethatHélèneCixouswasbornin1937, her father, GeorgeCixous,whowasa medicaldoctor, hada familynamesynonymous with socialascent. ThefigurecentraltoCixous’sworkfromthe1990sonwards(acrosstheperiodcorrespond- ing to beginning of her Algerian textual production) is Georges Cixous (born 1909). When Algeria returned to Hélène Cixous, it was also her Algerian father, the Arabizzare (strange Arab)(Cixous2000:47)whosepresencehadfounditswayontothepage.Hediedin1948and was buried in the cemetery of St Eugène in Algiers. George Cixous is Hélène Cixous’s Everett ancestrallinktoAlgeria.HehadbeeninfavourofAlgerianindependence(1997a:197)whilst equallyhadbeentemptedbythecallofPalestine(1997a:74):disillusionedbytheinstitutional anti-SemiticVichylegislationoftheFrenchState.GeorgeshaddecidedthattheyoungHélène should learn both Hebrew and Arabic; languages that she had no prior knowledge of, but whichatthesametimeconstituted,asfarashewasconcerned,partofherheritage.Whenher fatherdied,thetwosymbolicculturallyself-constituentSemiticlanguageeducators,bothreal and imagined, also vanished (Cixous: 2008). The symbolism of losing her father’s Judeo- Arabic influence on her life at such a young age can be considered as a metaphor for a temporary loss of Algerian Judaism not as a series of practices but as a cultural context for HélèneCixous,andformanyotherswholeftAlgeria. ThewesternAlgeriancapitalcityOraninJuly1936,whereHélèneCixouswouldbeborn in1937,isdescribedasbeing‘hometomanySpanishimmigrants,somebringingsocialistand anarchistideasSpanishwaswidelyspokenbyEuropeansandAlgerians.ItwasAlgeria’smost working-class city, with a long socialist tradition. But it was also marked by a deep anti- Semitic tradition that had penetrated daily life and culture, and a growing fascist movement supportedbythelargelandowners’(Drew2014:92–93).Thiscity,thatHélèneCixouswould dubVichy-à-OranbecauseofherexperiencethereunderVichyasachild,likeotherplacesshe writes of, is a textual embodiment of a woman (patria). This body, under Hélène Cixous’s watchfuleye,underwentaperiodofuninterruptedwarbetweentheSecondWorldWarandthe WarofAlgerianIndependence(Cixous2007a,b:71).Theterraceofherhouseoverlookedthe firstofthesewarstowhichtheyoungCixousborewitnessfromherbalcony(2003:151).She read the historical junctures and shifts of place names such as Rue des juifs which was re- baptisedRuedelarévolutionandthePlaced’Armesthatwouldbemarchedthroughfirstby Pétain’smen6andthenSalans’OAS.7 TherecurrenttropethatCixousemploysinthedescriptionofherfirstfamilyhomeinOran is the surreal address 54 rue Philippe en Oran (2000; 2003). The first name Philippe juxtaposedwiththecitynameOranservesasametaphorfortheFrenchpresenceinAlgeria. Why, after all, would Philippe be in Oran? Such a parallel of French and Maghrebi proper nounshighlightsthediasporicdifferenceandtrajectoryofherown(maternal)Germanfamily nameKlein‘fromOsnabrücktoAlgiers, haltingat Oran’(2000:106)andthe autochthonous Algerian Berber-Jewish lineage of the ‘Barbarous duck [name], [that] Berber friends recognised’, Cixous (1997a: 73). The two facets of her genealogical make-up contained in herfirstaddress—European(Philippe)andMaghribi(Oran,fromtheArabicWahranviathe Spanish)—openupaspaceforconsideringthestructuralinequalitiesinherentwithincolonial Algerian society during the 1940s. Cixous’ deconstructive microscope brings into focus divergences through levels of the house over which her family and neighbours lived, representing the social hierarchies that separated for example Jews from Spaniards. Yet, all the whilst, Mohamed, the figure of the Muslim, exists under the stairs, invisible and barely given sustenance. Alone and at the same time dwelling within the epicentre of the house, Mohamed was barely an acknowledged part of its social life (2003:157). The house, a Freudiansymbolforthewomb-likeinteriorwithinthesubconscious(Freud1991),thusallows theexpressionofmultiplevoices,indifferentlanguages(German,SpanishandArabic),whilst 6LemaréchalPétainwasthemilitaryfigurethatwouldestablishaFranco-Germanarmisticegovernment. 7OASstandsforOrganisationd’arméesecrète.Establishedtowardstheendofthewarofindependence,this terrorgroupmadeupofFrencharmyofficers(suchasSalans)andAlgéroisEuropeancivilianswagedwaronthe MuslimpopulationofAlgeria,brutallyandindiscriminately. TheAlgerianworksofHélèneCixous representing a microcosm of colonial society and its segregations, occurring at once in the mindofCixousthewriter,andaroundher,asachild. ItwasinOranthatHélèneCixousdiscoveredthatshewasJewish.Frenchchildrencalled her a ‘liar’ because of the religion that she had inherited: Judaism. The children had been playing marbles together, but when Hélène Cixous took back her marble she was called a ‘dirty Jew’ (sale juive) (2010). She therefore experienced hostility and discrimination from both within and without: the insult was a formative moment, a primary trauma, ‘the brutal commencement’(2003:155)ofherphilosophy,assheclaimsit,havingbeenfeltfromwithin. Yet,attheageofthree,shewasonlypartlyabletounderstandtheoffencewithoutknowingthe full extent ofwhat was represented bythis anti-Semitic attack onher person.8 Inpart, these experiencesofbeingOtheredandplacedintoacolonialhierarchyofethnicitiesandreligions asachildarethesedimentthatgaveheranhistoricalunderstandingof,andprofoundempathy for,aswellas,perhaps,astrongattractiontowards,Algerianpeoplepartiallyconditionedby thecategoriesproducedbythecolonialsystem:Berbers,Harkis,AlgerianImmigrants,Jewsor Women.Herfiercelyheldfaithinequalitybetweenthesegroupsandwiththemajorityatthe centre,ispredicatedonafirmbeliefintheidealsof(French)republicanuniversalism. In line with this, Hélène Cixous makes explicit throughout her writing the philosophical debtsheowes to Jacques Derrida. Inmuch ofher work, Derridaappears as Elie, theyoung Secularist-Jewish Saint (2001b:15). Derrida, who was both Cixous’s companion and col- league,wasalsoanAlgerianJewwithwhomshesharednotonlyaconvergenceofintellectual curiosity around deconstructionism but also a degree of communal experience. Born in pre- Second World War colonial Oran and Algiers respectively, each of them remained in Paris aftertheAlgerianwarofindependence.Cixouswouldmakeinter-textualsenseoftheirshared identificationtoamonolingual Algeria-bornFrench‘StranjewBody’(Cixous2007b:75).At theLondonJewishBookWeekin2010,sherecountedthatthroughherlife-longdialoguewith JacquesDerrida,theysharedthefollowingfeeling/process:whenadooropenedfrombehind which they would appear in any Parisian bistrot or social function, the word Juif (Jew) pronounced onomatopoeically to recall the swoosh of a door could be physically ‘felt’ (Cixous2010),likeastarecanbepenetrating,‘upon’them.Thisfeelingofbeingbothnamed and‘other’dependsontheinterpellationofaracialisingsystemandthedichotomousemotion of fear, necessary to produce racial animosities (Ahmed 2004: 75–76). To be called Juif, Cixoussuggests,isthusbornofaracial-interpellative9mechanism. HélèneCixousandJacquesDerrida,together,consistentlyopposedthereificationofJewish ‘religious’orAlgerian‘national’identitiesthat,forthem,donottranslatethediversefacetsof complexandevolvingidentificationstomultiple(NorthAfricanandotherwise)localitiesand heritages. By contrast, the neologism judaïtés—the deconstructionist term indebted to both CixousandDerrida—givesexpressionto‘acertainequivocation,anindefinableandundeter- minable diversity, that may well constitute the interiority of Judaism today’ (Cohen and Zagury-Orly 2007: xi). The complexity of judaïtés is historically layered: the term is not meant to define or explain but rather to act as a hermeneutic tool for opening up spaces of reflection.Cixous’sreferencetojudaïtésduringherpaperattheLondonJewishBookWeek (2010)wasusedtodisentanglereifiednotionsofsingularJewishandAlgerianidentitiessince 8Cixousdoesnotclaimtohaveunderstoodthediscursivedepthoftheattackinallitshistoricalchargebutrather tohavefeltandincorporatedsomethingfromthisexperienceaveryearlyage. 9Judith Butler has taken the original theory of interpellation by Louis Althusser and applied it to Racial discrimination. Everett judaïtésalsoexpressesalinguisticdiversitythathasbeautyandconnectivity.Expressionitself is thus perhaps a means of maintaining a certain passeporosité—concatenatingpassport and porousness—for Cixous (1997a: 71) representative of a linguistic identityinpermanentflux thatbridgescategorisationsofnationalityandreligion. During our second discussion10 (Cixous, personal correspondences and interviews, 2012 September21)thatcentredonAlgeria,colonyanddifference,conversationturnedtoCixous’s relationshiptoGermany.HélèneCixous’smotherEveKlein,whoseoxygentanksatbesideme duringbothofmyvisitsononeoftwosofascoveredbyAfricanrugsformingalargeL-shape in her living room, remained in Algeria as a midwife until 1971. Madame Klein, who is enduringly present in Hélène Cixous’s work, was born in Osnabrück. Her life-story is a corporeal representation of the central obscurantism that permeates contemporary French historiography. The twin axes of ‘national pain’ for France, too readily pushed beneath the surface,accordingtoHélèneCixous,emergedwiththeGermanannexationofAlsaceandthe subsequentinvasionandinstallationofacollaborationistgovernment,followedcloselybythe warwithAlgeria.Theabsenceofanyprocessofde-NazificationinFrance,HélèneCixoustold me, had supported the fallacy that France had resisted Nazism generally. Such a mistaken belief,whichonlypartiallyrepresentsthejarringfactthatFrenchresistanceswereindividual andcollectivebutnotnational,whilstcollaborationism,accommodationismandquietismwere thenorm(Gildea2015),reinforcedtheneedtohidetheatrocitiesoftheAlgerianwarinorder tomaintainthemythoftheFrenchimperialgreatnessanditshumanity. Thirtyyearsofeconomicdeclinesincethe1970s,andaglobalorderre-framedalongthe lines of natural resources and demographics (Kahl 2006), have whittled away at French imperialpredominance.TheBclashof‘occidental’and‘oriental’civilisations^post-9/11has, inFrance,blendedwithaGallicnationalistnarrativethatpreachesthebenefitsoftheFrench Empire. Nicholas Sarkozy in his capacity as minister of the Interior sought to combine the concepts of Nationalism and Identity. In direct contrast to this, Cixous considers that the process by which we are defined is more akin to DNA ‘archives’ (Cixous, 2007a, b, 2010, 2011). These archives are filed together and are only retrievable in conjunction with one another.Sherecognisesthatherarchivesarepluri-cultural.Forexample,inadditiontoFrance andAlgeria,sheisattractedbyandbeholdentonorthernEurope:codifiedbyEnglish,French andGerman.Indeed,herdiasporicallylocatedoriginsmeanthatherfamily’sexistenceandits relationshiptoAlgeriathroughmultiplelanguagesandbackgroundsweretransnationalahead of time. Yet I sensed an inherent tension within her ideas and approach towards Algeria, to which she never referred directly, at once painful, powerful and consubstantial. Judaïtés are indicativeofherdeconstructivistphilosophy,whichseekstodisentanglereifiednotionsofthe selfbutcanonlyeverbeviewedalongsideherAlgerianexperiencetranslatedintotextualform throughthemediumoftheFrenchlanguage.Similarly,hername,Cixous,anditsindigenous genealogycannottrulyhavemeaningunlesstheyaresetalongsidetheghostsofherinitiation to Hebrew and Arabic, two elements of her father’s Semitic influence that heightened her frustrationatbeingidentifiedascomplicitwithPhilippeinOran(theFrenchcolonialpresence) whichhaspoweredmuchofherwork.Atthesametime,Cixousispainfullyawarethatitis through the experience of anti-Semitism first hand, both institutional in her expulsion from 10Inourfirstmeeting,afterhavingdescribedmyresearchprojecttoher,HélèneCixousshowedconcernthatit wasoverlyBjudeo-centric^.ForherJudaism,Jewishnessorjudaïtéstousetheneologismthat shehasbeen involvedindeploying,arenotionstousealongsideothersthatthenrequire‘shakingawayfromthebase’or‘de- centring’inordertoreflectonhumanrelationsthroughlanguageandhistoryinalloftheircomplexity. TheAlgerianworksofHélèneCixous FrenchpublicschoolunderVichylaw(1997c:61),andoutsideschool,asachild,insultedand stigmatised by other children, through which she was able to give form to feelings of Algerianness. Such feelings would be re-activated in France when she was called upon by activistsfromKabylia(amountainousareaofnortherncentralAlgeria). Algérianceinthe1990s It appears that by the early 1990s, Cixous’ engagement as a feminist and her Algerian experiences began to fit together. In order to engage the process of reflection around her relationship to Algeria with critical distance, she drew on her own early personal trajectory over several decades. As we have seen,in her early childhood, from 1940, she experienced anti-SemitisminOran.Aswewillsee,inherearlyadolescence,from1950,sheexperienced theimpossibilityofbeinganAlgeriancitizenasneither settler norindigène (autochthonous, Muslim, Algerian) in Algiers. Then, in early adulthood, from 1962, she experienced being foreigninher owncityAlgierswhere, withher ownchildren, shewouldregularlymeet her mother until 1971. In spite of that year signalling a point of no return (2007a: 17), Cixous indicatesthatshecouldnothelpthere-emergenceof‘theAlgerian-Thing’(2007a:19)inher writing after 1993, bywhichtimeshewasinmiddleadulthood.Such a ‘thing’, made upof manyhithertosuppressedmemoriesofAlgeria,re-surfacedcontemporaneouslytoaperiodof intense Algerian civil unrest in the 1990s, during which opposition to both the regime and Islamist violence and brutality by members of Algerian civil society was often expressed in France.ThepluralityofwhatCixouswouldeventuallytermherAlgériance,shebegantosee as a tool for the exploration of alternatives to a singular, national, state-led, imposition of identityinFrancethat begantosurfaceatthesameperiod.Thus,adualprocessemergedin whichshebegantorecountherqueerlyrootedAlgerianhistory(1997a:179). ThetriggerthatinspiredCixoustospeak,politically,aboutherAlgerianexperiences,asa womanfromAlgeriainFrance,wasanimpromptuvisitbyagroupofAlgerianfemaleactivists from Kabylia, who, as she puts it, would return to her ‘mourning, menaced and trembling’ (1997b:74).Thus,morethan20yearsafterhermother’sdeparturefromAlgeria,in1971,the Algerian ‘thing’ renewed itself to her. The implicit endorsement that the opportunity of association with Kabylia activists afforded her meant that Cixous felt, perhaps for the first time, that she would not be perceived as speaking for Algerians, which had previously prevented her fromexpressingherself on thesubject.As thebattleground for the conflict in AlgeriaspreadtometropolitanFrance,11thisparticularhistoricaljuncturewouldalsomarkthe start of an intractable conflation in metropolitan France between French-born Algerians and Islamistviolence.TheimperativeoftheseKabyliawomen,whocametoherfromthewar-torn Algeria of the 1990s, found Cixous ready to face her past in conjunction with the then contemporarynotionsofconflict,separation,andreligiousobscurantism. Inlightofthisconjuncture,Cixous’sliteraryproductionwouldtakeatwofoldturn.Onthe onehand,shebegantowriteaboutherAlgerianchildhood,recognisingitsseminalimportance in her work and her political engagement for education, gender and poetry, buried as it had beenamongmemoriesof her father.PhotosdeRacine(1994) wouldtrace thisre-discovery. TheworktakestheformofaseriesofinterviewswithMireilleCalle-Gruberinwhichsheand 11WhichwouldculminateintheGroupeIslamiqueArmée(GIA-ArmedIslamicGroup)bombcampaignin Francein1995,mostnotablythebombingofthesuburbantrainnetwork(RER)atcentralParisianstationSt Michel. Everett Hélène Cixous discussed politics, poetry, Otherness, writing, language and hierarchies. This textisfollowedbyanautobiography—anarrativethatallowsonlyonestorytounfoldatthe expense of another, Cixous warns the reader—peppered with photos of her childhood or ‘rootprints’ as the English-language version of the text calls them. On the other hand, her geographicalpositioninParismadeCixousreflectonAlgeriainFrance,asaminority.Inthis vein,sheattemptedtoreachouttoawider(andlessliterary)audienceinthepoliticalmusic magazineLesInrockuptibles(LesInrocks).Herarticle,entitledMonAlgériance(1997b),used forceful language, engaging more directly than usual with her fears about the reification of identityandherconsternationattheon-goingprocessofFrench‘communitisation’(commu- nity-making): ‘I fear thewayinwhichpeople throughanxietyandinspiredbyunhappiness, takeon,belong,attachthemselves’which‘includeswriterswhoplottheirland,becomelordof amanor,searchforhouses,patronsandidentify’(1997b:74).TheseversesexpressedCixous’s anxietyatintellectualstakingsides,actingselfishlyandusingthepentoattachotherstothat side. Les Inrocks was the chosen medium for Cixous’s most clearly delineated wider-public essay,givingdirectvoicetoherconcernsfromthealterityofherAlgerianpositioninFrance. Her text responded to the forces at play on both sides of the Mediterranean in Algeria and Franceandgrappledwiththeword‘identity’.Thus,ifjudaïtés denotespluralityinherwork, then Algériance adds movement and circulation to this. Cixous sees these terms not as operating in separate spheres but rather functioning together within an organic experiential seriesofarchiveswhichconstructandconstitutetheselfinitspassagethroughtime(history) and space (travel and movement). Perhaps not coincidently, Cixous’s foray into the public spotlightcameatatimewhenshehadbeenresearchinghundredsofherfather’sletters(some ofwhich arepublished in O.R:Leslettres demonpère (1997d).Many oftheseletterswere sentfromherfather’smedicalpracticeinanarmybarracks,toOran,aftertheUSlandingin NorthAfrica(1942)thankstowhichherfatherwasreinstatedasapractisingdoctor,atitlethat hadbeenstrippedfromhimbyVichygovernmentanti-Semiticlegislation.Later,otherletters were sent by her father to her mother in Paris, from Algiers. Whilst attesting to their deep attachmenttooneanother,theselettersgivebodytothetremendouslyprecariousexperience thatherparentsenduredduringtheSecondWorldWar(Cixous1997d),whichHélèneCixous would in turn feel, no doubt less acutely and more awkwardly, during the war of Algerian independence. ThearrivalofthreeMuslimgirlstoCixous’prestigiousAlgiersLycéeFromentinin1951, oneofwhomwasZohraDrif,underlinesCixouslivedtensionbetweenthedifficultyofbeing perceivedasFrenchandambiguityofCixous’snascentpoliticalconsciousness.Shewasstuck betweentheFrenchlegalsystemthatclaimedherandthelanguagewhichdefinedit,andher senseofbelongingtoAlgeria.ShewrotethatofherexperienceattheLycée: Iwasbehindthebarsofadementeddestiny,parkedwiththeFrenchwhodis-resemble me,myadversaries,theirhandsreachingformineand,ontheotherside,invisiblehands reachingformyowntribewhohadnoteyesforme.ForthemassuredlyIwaswhatIwas not:aFrenchgirl.(Cixous2001a:186) ThispassagetranslatesthefeelingofbeingimprisonedoutsidethefutureAlgeriannational communitytowhichCixousachedtobelong.Thatrejectedsenseofbelongingtowhichshe wasardentandloyal,withwhichshehadsomuchempathy,without,asanadolescent,fully understandingwhy,wasneverthelessforbiddentoher.Heroutstretchedhandsimplycouldnot