Alice A. Jardine is a Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and a member of the Executive Committee at the Harvard Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. She is the author of Gynesis: Configurations of Woman and Modernity and co-editor of several volumes, including most recently (with Anne Menke) Shifting Scenes: Interviews on Women, Writing, and Politics in Post-68 France, forthcoming from Columbia University Press. (updated 1990)