Julia Kristeva, a Bulgarian-born French thinker, is a psychoanalyst, sociologist, critic, feminist, and philosopher whose work delves into the complexities of language, the psyche, and semiotics. Drawing from the Lacanian tradition, she critically examines the structures of meaning and the human experience. Kristeva brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to her extensive writings, exploring themes of identity, alienation, and the abject. Her continued exploration through both academic and literary forms offers profound insights into the modern condition.
Tracing artists' increasing use of their bodies as subject and actual material of their artworks, this title charts the rise of new forms of expression such as Body Art, Happenings, Performance and Live Art.
Focusing on Marcel Proust's work, Julia Kristeva's exploration delves into the intricate relationship between literature, time, and sensory experience. This reassessment not only offers insights into Proust's narrative but also reflects on the broader implications of how literature engages with our perception of time and sensory awareness. Through this lens, Kristeva invites readers to reconsider the profound impact of literary experiences on our understanding of existence.
A gem of a personal exploration by Julia Kristeva, examining contemporary issues such as European identity, the role of religion in political life, and the meaning of equality for women.
In Black Sun, Julia Kristeva addresses the subject of melancholia, examining this phenomenon in the context of art, literature, philosophy, the history of religion, and culture, as well as psychoanalysis. She describes the depressive as one who perceives the sense of self as a crucial pursuit and a nearly unattainable goal and explains how the love of a lost identity of attachment lies at the very core of depression's dark heart.In her discussion she analyzes Holbein's controversial 1522 painting "The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb," and has revealing comments on the works of Marguerite Duras, Dostoyevsky and Nerval. Black Sun takes the view that depression is a discourse with a language to be learned, rather than just strictly a pathology to be treated.
Julia Kristeva has been both attracted and repelled by Dostoyevsky since her youth. In this extraordinary book, by turns poetic and intensely personal, she brings her unique critical sensibility to bear on the tormented and visionary Russian author.
Julia Kristeva offers an extensive and profound consideration of the nature of abjection. Drawing on Freud and Lacan, she analyzes the nature of attitudes toward repulsive subjects and examines the function of these topics in the writings of Celine, Proust, Joyce, and other authors.
Julia Kristeva explicates her foundational distinction between the semiotic and the symbolic and explores their interrelationships. Linking the psychosomatic to the literary and the literary to a larger political horizon, she questions the premises of linguistic, psychoanalytic, philosophical, and literary theories.
Exploring the intricate relationships between love, desire, and self, Julia Kristeva delves into the dialogues of Greek, Christian, Roman, and modern perspectives. By adopting the roles of psychoanalyst, scholar, and postmodern critic, she reveals both the conflicts and shared themes across these diverse discourses, offering a profound analysis of how these concepts have evolved and intersected throughout history.
Julia Kristeva turns her famed critical eye to a study of the human head as symbol and metaphor, as religious object and physical fact, further developing a critical theme in her work--the power of horror--and expanding the potential for the face to provide an experience of the sacred. Kristeva's study stretches far back in time to 6,000 B.C.E. with humans' early decoration and worship of skulls, and follows with an examination of the Medusa myth; the mandylion of Laon (a holy relic in which the face of a saint appears on a piece of cloth); the biblical stories of John the Baptist and Salome; tales of the guillotine; modern murder mysteries; and the rhetoric surrounding the fight for and against capital punishment. Drawing numerous connections between these "capital visions" and their experience, Kristeva affirms the possibility of the sacred, even in an era of "faceless" interaction.
Kristeva explores the philosophical aspects of Hannah Arendt's work: her understanding of such concepts as language, self, body, political space, and life.
