ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that there is also a deep aversion to the prospect of being seen to have written an autobiography. It analyses Nathalie Sarraute's writing of the self in the well-known Enfance, but also in the later and less acclaimed Tu ne t'aimes pas and Ouvrez, in the light of Jacques Lacan's theories on the role of the Other in the constitution of the self. The book explores a tension between how Hélène Cixous comes to suggest herself should be read and how Cixous is read and related to in some quarters by readers who conceive of themselves as being aligned with her project, often seen as feminist. It reconsiders what is at stake in the rejection of the affiliation with autobiography in the light of the play of power relations to which autobiographical texts play host.
