Julia Kristeva in 2007

Julia Kristeva (Bulgarian: Юлия Кръстева) (born 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. Kristeva has become influential in today's critical analysis and cultural theory after publishing her first book Semeiotikè in 1969. Her immense body of work includes books, essays and preface publications of architectural importance, which include the notions of intertextuality, the semiotic, and abjection, for the fields of linguistics, literary theory and criticism, psychoanalysis, biography and autobiography, political and cultural analysis, art and art history. Together with Barthes, Todorov, Goldmann, Genette, Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, Greimas, Foucault, and Althusser, she stands as one of the forefront structuralists, in that time when structuralism took major place in humanities. Her works also have an important place in post-structuralist thought. Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 702 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2244 × 1917 pixel, file size: 727 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Julia Kristeva during a public meeting with Jonathan Littell at the École normale supérieure in Paris Copyright © 2007 David Monniaux File historyClick on a... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 702 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2244 × 1917 pixel, file size: 727 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Julia Kristeva during a public meeting with Jonathan Littell at the École normale supérieure in Paris Copyright © 2007 David Monniaux File historyClick on a... is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... Today psychoanalysis comprises several interlocking theories concerning the functioning of the mind. ... French feminism (which is a phrase mostly used in English-speaking countries) refers to the work of a group of feminists in France from the 1970s to the early 1990s. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969. ... An automatic way of defining the imaginary lack of boundaries separating all of mankind’s different forms of expression (or ways of life). ... Intertextuality is the shaping of texts meanings by other texts. ... Semiotics (also spelled Semeiotics) is the study of signs and sign systems. ... The term Abjection literally means the state of being cast off. ... Roland Barthes (November 12, 1915 _ March 25, 1980) was a French literary critic, literary and social theorist, philosopher and semiotician. ... Tzvetan Todorov (bg: Цветан Тодоров) (born 1939 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian philosopher. ... Lucien Goldmann (born 1913 in Botosani, Romania, died 1970 in Paris) was a French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origin. ... The cover of the paperback edition of Seuils. ... This article is about the anthropologist. ... Jacques Lacan Jacques Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was an influential French psychoanalyst as well as a structuralist who based much of his theories on Ferdinand de Saussures theories on language. ... Algirdas Julius Greimas, or Algirdas Julien Greimas (born March 9, 1917 in Tula, died 1992 in Paris), was a linguist who contributed to the theory of semiotics, and also researched Lithuanian mythology. ... Michel Foucault (pronounced ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher, historian and sociologist. ... Louis Althusser (October 19, 1918 _ October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Structuralism as a term refers to various theories across the humanities, social sciences and economics many of which share the assumption that structural relationships between concepts vary between different cultures/languages and that these relationships can be usefully exposed and explored. ... For other uses, see Humanities (disambiguation). ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and...

Life

Born in Sliven, Bulgaria, Kristeva moved to France in December 1966, when she was 25. She continued her education at several French universities. Sliven (Bulgarian: Сливен) is a town in southeast Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Sliven Province. ...

Work

Arriving in France Kristeva experienced the rapidly waning influence of structuralism, which was being challenged by Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, among others. With joining the 'Tel Quel group' in 1965 she focused on the politics of language and became an active member of the group. Kristeva took training in psychoanalysis which she completed in 1979. In some ways, her work can be seen as trying to adapt a psychoanalytic approach to the poststructuralist critiques. For example, her view of the subject, and its construction, shares many similarities with Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. However, Kristeva rejects any formal systematical (or structuralist) understanding of the subject in favor of a subject perpetually "in process" or "in crisis." In this way, she contributes to the poststructuralist critique of essentialized structures, while preserving a psychoanalytic approach. She travelled to China in the 1970s and wrote About Chinese Women (1977) about her experiences. Structuralism as a term refers to various theories across the humanities, social sciences and economics many of which share the assumption that structural relationships between concepts vary between different cultures/languages and that these relationships can be usefully exposed and explored. ... Michel Foucault (pronounced ) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher, historian and sociologist. ... Jacques Derrida (IPA: in French [1], in English ) (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ... Disambiguation : for the Moroccan weekly newspaper see here. ... Psychoanalysis is the revelation of unconscious relations, in a systematic way through an associative process. ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and... Subject (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French IPA: ) (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. ...

The semiotic

One of Kristeva's most important propositions is her idea of the semiotic. Kristeva's use of the term 'semiotic' here should not be confused with the discipline of semiotics suggested by Ferdinand de Saussure. For Kristeva, the semiotic is closely related to the infantile (pre-mirror) state in both Lacan and Freud. It is an emotional force, tied to our instincts, which exists in the fissures and prosody of language rather than in the denotative meanings of words. In this sense, the semiotic is opposed to the symbolic, which refers to a more denotative mathematical correspondence of words to meaning. She is also noted for her work on the concepts of abjection and intertextuality. Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. ... Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (pronounced ) (November 26, 1857 – February 22, 1913) was a Geneva-born Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many of the significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. ... child and mirror The mirror stage was the subject of Jacques Lacans first official contribution to psychoanalytic theory (Fourteenth International Psychoanalytical Congress at Marienbad in 1936). ... Instinct is the word used to describe inherent dispositions towards particular actions. ... Prosody may mean several things: Prosody consists of distinctive variations of stress, tone, and timing in spoken language. ... In semiotics, denotation is the surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier, and the definition most likely to appear in a dictionary. ... The term Abjection literally means the state of being cast off. ... Intertextuality is the shaping of texts meanings by other texts. ...

Anthropology and psychology

Kristeva argues that anthropology and psychology, or the connection between the social and the subject, do not represent each other, but rather follow the same logic: the survival of the group and subject. Furthermore, in her analysis of Oedipus, she claims that the speaking subject cannot exist on his own, but that he "stands on the fragile threshold as if stranded on account of an impossible demarcation" (Powers of Horror, p. 85). Anthropology (from Greek: ἀνθρωπος, anthropos, human being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of humanity. ... Psychological science redirects here. ... For other uses, see Oedipus (disambiguation). ... Powers of Horror: an Essay on Abjection is a 1982 book by Julia Kristeva. ...

In her comparison between the two disciplines, Kristeva claims that the way in which an individual excludes the abject mother as means of forming an identity, is the same way in which societies are constructed. On a broader scale, cultures exclude the maternal and the feminine, and by this come into being.

Feminism

Kristeva was regarded as a key proponent of French feminism together with Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and, from the 1990s onwards, Bracha Ettinger; she had a remarkable influence on feminism in the US and the UK, although her relations with feminist circles and movements in France was quite controversial. Kristeva made a famous disambiguation of three types of feminism in "Women's Time" in New Maladies of the Soul (1993), while rejecting the first two, including that of Simone de Beauvoir, her stands are sometimes considered as rejective of feminism in common; in fact, Kristeva tried to propose the idea of multiple sexual identities against the joined code of "unified feminine language". French feminism (which is a phrase mostly used in English-speaking countries) refers to the work of a group of feminists in France from the 1970s to the early 1990s. ... Hélène Cixous (born June 5, 1937) is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. ... Luce Irigaray (born 1930 Belgium) is a French feminist and psychoanalytic and cultural theorist. ... Bracha L. Ettinger (also known as Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Bracha Ettinger, Hebrew: ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר) is a renowned artist, painter, photographer, theorist and psychoanalyst. ... La Beauvoir redirects here; also see: Beauvoir (disambiguation). ...

Novels

In the past decade, Kristeva has written a number of novels that resemble detective stories. While the books maintain narrative suspense and develop a compellingly stylized surface, her readers also encounter ideas intrinsic to her theoretical projects. Her characters reveal themselves mainly through psychological devices, making her type of fiction mostly resemble the later work of Dostoevsky. Her fictional oeuvre, which includes The Old Man and the Wolves, Murder in Byzantium, and Possessions, while often allegorical, also approaches the autobiographical in some passages, especially with one of the protagonists of "Possessions," Stephanie Delacour - a French journalist - which can be seen as Kristeva's alter ego. Murder in Byzantium deals with themes from orthodox Christianity and politics and has been described by Kristeva as "a kind of anti-Da Vinci Code."^[1] Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, pronounced , sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, Dostoievsky, or Dostoevski  ) (November 11 [O.S. October 30] 1821–February 9 [O.S. January 28] 1881) was a Russian novelist and writer of fiction whose works, including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, have had a profound and lasting effect... The Da Vinci Code book cover The Da Vinci Code is a novel written by American author Dan Brown and published in 2003 by Doubleday Fiction (ISBN 0385504209). ...

Personal

Julia Kristeva is married to the French writer Philippe Sollers and has a daughter,^[2] and a son named David.^{[citation needed]} Philippe Sollers (b. ...

Honors

For her "innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture and literature", Kristeva was awarded the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004. She won the 2006 Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thought. The Holberg International Memorial Prize is awarded for outstanding scholarly work in humanities, social sciences, law, and theology. ...

Notes

Selected Writings

• Séméiôtiké: recherches pour une sémanalyse, Paris: Edition du Seuil, 1969. (English translation: Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Oxford: Blackwell, 1980.)
• La Révolution Du Langage Poétique: L'avant-Garde À La Fin Du Xixe Siècle, Lautréamont Et Mallarmé. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1974. (English translation: Revolution in Poetic Language, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.)
• About Chinese Women. London: Boyars, 1977.
• Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
• The Kristeva Reader. (ed. Toril Moi) Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
• In the Beginning Was Love: Psychoanalysis and Faith. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.
• Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia. New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
• Nations without Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
• New Maladies of the Soul. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
• Crisis of the European Subject. New York: Other Press, 2000.
• Reading the Bible. In: David Jobling, Tina Pippin & Ronald Schleifer (eds). The Postmodern Bible Reader. (pp. 92-101). Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
• Female Genius: Life, Madness, Words: Hannah Arendt, Melanie Klein, Colette: A Trilogy. 3 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Novels

• The Samurai: A Novel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.
• The Old Man and the Wolves. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
• Possessions: A Novel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
• Murder in Byzantium. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

See also

• list of deconstructionists
• Luce Irigaray
• Bracha L. Ettinger
• Hélène Cixous

This is a list of notable thinkers that have been influenced by deconstruction. ... Luce Irigaray (born 1930 Belgium) is a French feminist and psychoanalytic and cultural theorist. ... Bracha L. Ettinger (also known as Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger, Bracha Ettinger, Hebrew: ברכה אטינגר, ברכה ליכטנברג-אטינגר) is a renowned artist, painter, photographer, theorist and psychoanalyst born in Tel Aviv. ... Hélène Cixous (born June 5, 1937) is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. ...

External links

• State University of New York at Stony Brook
• Tate Britain Online Event: Julia Kristeva
• Who's who in Les samouraïs
• An Interview with Josefina Ayerza - Flash Art Magazine
• Guardian article: March 14, 2006
• http://www.kristeva.fr
• http://kristeva.blogs.com/