Catherine Clément (French philosopher and writer) Add a review

Catherine Clément (French: [klemɑ̃]; born 10 February 1939) is a French philosopher, novelist, feminist, and literary critic, born in Boulogne-Billancourt. She received a degree in philosophy from the École Normale Supérieure, and studied under its faculty Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan, working in the fields of anthropology and psychoanalysis. A member of the school of French feminism and écriture féminine, she has published books with Hélène Cixous and Julia Kristeva. She has also made contributions to musicology; her Opera, or the Undoing of Women (1979) is notable for its emphasis on the representation of women in opera.

She lived many years overseas, as her husband, André Lewin (1934–2012), was a diplomat who was France's Ambassador to India, Austria, Guinea, Gambia and Senegal. She was awarded the Grand Officer of the Ordre national du Mérite in 2012 and the Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2017.