ABSTRACT
In “Extreme Fidelity” Cixous cites loss as a key factor in the subject’s formation. 1 In this next extract from Déluge—“Deluge” published in 1992, the experience of personal loss at the end of a love relationship joins to the loss—of the m/other, death—at the heart of the human condition in a rewriting of the biblical flood. In a graphic depiction of death, the passage describes the “compulsory murder” of the self’s own needs and desires losing entails, and highlights the “poison” of illusion. The work mourning involves is dramatized through the character of Ascension, as she struggles to discover and invent solutions to the problems that confront her. This never-ending struggle is nonetheless presented as vital, since it is in the work that we live.
