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Catherine Clément

Author of Theo's Odyssey

79+ Works 1,544 Members 33 Reviews

About the Author

Catherine Clement was professor of philosophy at the University of Paris.
Image credit: Esby

Works by Catherine Clément

Theo's Odyssey (1997) 610 copies
The Newly Born Woman (1975) 191 copies
Opera: The Undoing of Women (1979) 105 copies
La Senora (1992) 55 copies
The Weary Sons of Freud (1978) 55 copies
Edwina and Nehru (1993) 50 copies
The Feminine and the Sacred (1998) 43 copies
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1974) 35 copies
Le Sang du monde (2004) 33 copies
Martin and Hannah (1999) 27 copies
Dix mille guitares (2010) 15 copies
The Call of the Trance (2011) 13 copies
La Sultane (1981) 10 copies
La Valse inachevée (1994) 10 copies
Mémoire (2009) 8 copies
La putain du diable (1996) 8 copies
La Reine des cipayes (2012) 5 copies
Jésus au bûcher (2000) 5 copies
Adrienne Lecouvreur (1991) 4 copies
La folle et le saint (1993) 4 copies
Faire l'amour avec Dieu (2017) 3 copies
As novas Bacantes (1999) 3 copies
Le roman du Taj Mahal (1997) 3 copies
La princesse mendiante (2007) 2 copies
Azul acero (2007) 2 copies
L'Allemand de ma mère (2023) 2 copies
Le Musée des sorcières (2020) 2 copies
Le Divan et le Grigri (2002) 1 copy
Muhteşem senyora (2001) 1 copy
Theova cesta (2002) 1 copy
Eloge de la nuit (2009) 1 copy
Jacques Derrida (1990) 1 copy
L'Inde des Indiens (2006) 1 copy
Afrique Esclave (1999) 1 copy
Pour Sigmund Freud (2005) 1 copy
Revue l'arc n° 54. (1973) 1 copy
Die Senyora 1 copy
IAD - PHILIPPE SOLLERS (1995) 1 copy
Indu boy (2018) 1 copy
Maison mère (2006) 1 copy

Associated Works

Magische Hände : sinnliche Künste aus Indien (1993) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Clément, Catherine
Legal name
Clément, Catherine
Birthdate
1939-02-10
Gender
female
Nationality
France
Birthplace
Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Places of residence
Paris, Île-de-France, France
India
Austria
Senegal
Education
École Normale Supérieure
Occupations
philosopher
novelist
literary critic
feminist
cultural critic
Relationships
Clément, Jérome (brother)
Organizations
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Le Matin de Paris (Journal)
Ministère des Relations extérieures (Collaboratrice, Association Française d'Action Artistique)
Université populaire du quai Branly, Paris, France (2002)
France Culture (Radio)
Awards and honors
Ordre national du Mérite
Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
Prix Francine and Antoine Bernheim (2021)
Short biography
Catherine Clément was born into a mixed Catholic-Jewish family. She received a degree in philosophy from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris; her professors included Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan. After teaching for 12 years, she retired from academia to write full-time. She produced feature articles for Matin de Paris on cultural life. In 1969, she was named head of the Ministry of Culture’s arts board, which took her to India for four years. Her affection for the country is evident in the nearly 30 fiction and nonfiction books she has written about it, including The Last Days of the Goddess (2006), For the Love of India (1993), and The Sultan (1981). Catherine Clément also has lived for extended periods of time in Austria and Senegal. In 2001, she entered politics with the presidential campaign of Jean-Pierre Chevènement. She was asked to write a report on culture on French television. She has also published books with Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva.

Members

Reviews

By far the weirdest academic book I've read. Yes, it is academic; it's been researched and has notes and everything, but the writing is personal and often poetic. It is nonfiction, but it's more narrative than research. If you can figure out how best to interpret it, you can glean a lot of useful insights from it.
 
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karimagon | 3 other reviews | Jun 23, 2022 |
Wow... Remarkably difficult but I love her thought process.
 
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OutOfTheBestBooks | 3 other reviews | Sep 24, 2021 |
Catherine Clément's Lives and Legends of Jacques Lacan was first published in French in 1981, appearing just after the death of Lacan and the controversial dissolution of the École freudienne. As such, Clément weaves together a theoretical meditation on the merits of Lacan's work with an account of her own personal interactions and observations, such as the reactions of her fifteen-year-old daughter to psychoanalysis. The result is a measured, beautifully lyrical account of both this period of time and the ideas that sprang from it.

Clément divides the book into four chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of Lacan's thought. The first chapter recounts how she fell in love with Lacan, as well as the centrality of love to his ideas, while also showing how Clément eventually fell out of love with Lacan.

Most insightful for me was the second chapter, in which Clément, who regards herself a feminist, emphasizes the importance of women for Lacan. His interest in key cases dealing with women, from Aimee to the Papin sisters, culminates in his theory of the not-All. Clément provides an interesting commentary on how this idea has been misunderstood, arguing that Lacan should be seen as in agreement with the feminists: there is no Woman, no eternal feminine, only women.

The third chapter deals with the evolution from plain, everyday Jacques-Marie Lacan to the superstar theorist Lacan. Clément traces the various controversies and theoretical breaks that marked Lacan's career, crucial moments that would elevate him in the French imagination.

The final full chapter looks at the development of Lacan's thought, first in relation to politics, then in its borrowings from science and mathematics. Like many other readers of Lacan, I am skeptical about the value of this part of his work, but Clément is generous in how she presents it and attempts to salvage what she can from its contradictions.

The book closes with a short epilogue titled "The Firebird," in which Clément imagines Lacan as a phoenix. Clearly the dissolution of the École freudienne was a major trauma for her, as it forms the nucleus of this beautifully-written and emotionally touching book. Clément's Lives and Legends of Jacques Lacan deserves its place as a classic in the field, combining theory and memoir, experience and thought, into a single moving volume.
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vernaye | May 23, 2020 |
A beautifully written and incredibly insightful take on the classic operas we have come to know and love. Clement's language is pristine - like poetry. This book has been inspiring to me, and I believe all Opera lovers should have it on their bookshelves.
 
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samanthapearlt | 3 other reviews | Apr 14, 2019 |

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Statistics

Works
79
Also by
2
Members
1,544
Popularity
#16,681
Rating
½ 3.7
Reviews
33
ISBNs
233
Languages
17

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