Does anyone know of any books that discuss Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic viewpoint in practice?
Can anyone provide a succinct summary of Kristeva's Revolution in Poetic Language? I can't wrap my head around the concepts, ideas and notions she's presenting. A run-down of her thoughts and philosophy would be nice.
Not sure if any of you have read either โRevolution in Poetic Languageโ or her other works like โWomenโs Timeโ, but if you have Iโd love to rant about her and what you think. If you havenโt read her works I would definitely recommend!
Edit: Iโll add a little summary on her based idea of feminism that I wrote based on her essay โStabat Materโ :
For Kristeva, a renewed sense of feminism (as seen in what she calls the third generation of feminism) addresses what it is to be a feminine subject and unveils the accomplishments and impasses of the French feminist movement. Kristeva aims to both draw upon and transcend the approaches of the two previous generationsโthus, allowing for a better understanding of sexual difference in a more metaphysical and cosmic way. In saying this, Kristeva allows for feminism to be rooted in a sort of โethics of connectionโ. Through a connection with others, primarily seen through the maternal connection between a mother and her child, feminism allows for us to relate to the โother within ourselvesโ. This sort of creative maternity is further discussed in her essay โStabat Materโ. This rich text allows for maternity to come alive through both her own personal experience (as seen on the right side of the text), and the representation of motherhood through Catholic dogma. Kristeva unveils how maternity is inherently and intrinsically connected to a philosophical understanding of ethics. By re-grounding ethics in the โotherโ (e.g. the โotherโ that is a child) we are able to rethink and reground our ethical agency. Secondly, she concludes that the radical nature of the second generation is inherently negative. Kristeva views this as a sort of uprooting or violent act, isolating women and allowing for more repressive actions to occur towards them.
This might be a shot in the dark but does anybody know where I can find Powers of Horror as a pdf? Currently writing my thesis on abjection and need the source
Hi everyone, I've become acquainted with Kristeva's psychoanalytic theory, but until now purely through secondary texts and summaries. I'm particularly interested in her concept of the semiotic (esp. in conjunction with Nietzsche's Dionysian and in contexts of literary theory). Can anyone recommend me a particular chapter/essay, in which she concisely summarises/outlines the concept of the semiotic?
โAnd nevertheless, no, I have nothing to say to them, to my parents. Nothing. Nothing and everything, as always. If I tried โ out of boldness, through luck, or in distress โ to share with them some of the violence that causes me to be so totally on my own, they would not know where I am, who I am, what it is, in others, that rubs me the wrong way.โ
The stuff I've read of her works so far seems quite interesting: the distinction between the semiotic and the symbolic as the maternal and the paternal domains, which are associated with the unconscious and the conscious, as I understand it.
This distinction also reminds me of Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian in how they interact with each other.
I'm going to read Ferdinand de Saussure's โ"Course in General Linguistics" and I'm thinking if I should try something by Kristeva next, since I've never read Lacan or Derrida, both of which seem to be her major influences. But I'm familiar with Freud, Roland Barthes and Hannah Arendt to some extent.
What would be the starting point for me, guys? I have "Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art" as a hardcover and both "Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection" and "Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia" as ebooks.
Kristeva explains how the 'I' is exiled from the self when experiencing abjection (it becomes a stray) and that it is subsumed by an 'other'. Her reference to the 'other' is so vague - I don't understand whether the 'other' is the abject (so the I becomes the abject), or is the 'other' the unknown which the 'I' fears? or maybe it is the controlling force on the 'I' which causes it to remain bound to normalized societal reactions (causing repression). Is the 'other' some external validation for normalcy?
here's the pdf if anyone wants to look it over. I'm specifically looking at pages 7-10 (or 16-19 in pdf pages). http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/RuttkayVeronika/Kristeva_-_powers_of_horror.pdf
