Kristeva, Julia (1941–)

(Early work on semiotics.)

(Semiotic theory and linguistic literary analysis.)

(Fusing insights from the diverse sources of linguistics, Bahktin, Hegel, Lacan and others, this central text firmly established Kristeva’s reputation as an original theorist, mobilizing the distinction between the semiotic chora as a motile rhythmic sensible aspect of language and the symbolic realm of meaning that has become the hallmark of her work.)

(Of the twenty essays comprising this collection, eight are translated in Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. L.S. Roudiez, trans. T. Gora, A. Jardine and L.S. Roudiez, 1980.)

(Psychoanalytic work exploring abjection, perversion and defilement in the context of Céline’s novels, the Oedipal myth and biblical semiotics.)

(Freudian inspired theoretical and historical theory of love drawing on religious and literary conceptions of agapē and eros, from Plato to Bataille.)

(Analysis of melancholia and depression as different ways of mourning the lost maternal object.)

(Cultural, political and psychoanalytic analysis of the phenomenon of foreignness, nationality and individuality.)

(A meditation on the function of psychoanalysis in relation to the soul, approached as the ‘psyche’ by the ancients.)

(Contains an interview with Kristeva.)

(A useful collection, focusing on the literary and feminist aspects of Kristeva’s corpus.)

(Lacan’s major collection of essays containing seminal pieces, such as the essay on the ‘mirror stage’.)

(The translation is in a collection of essays focusing on the question of woman, with two very helpful introductory essays by the editors.)

(A general introduction, helpful for situating Kristeva’s semiotics in its linguistic context.)

(The first collection of essays to introduce Kristeva to an English speaking feminist audience. Includes an extract from an interview, ‘Woman Can Never be Defined’, first published in 1974 by Tel Quel, conducted by the radical feminist group known as ‘Psych & Po’.)

(To date the best collection of essays, representing the diverse elements of Kristeva’s work, including an article by Lisa Lowe concerning Kristeva’s work on Chinese women.)

(Particularly useful for readers interested in psychoanalysis and feminism.)

(Plato’s Timaeus is a classic ancient text that presents a myth of creation and concerns the themes of space, place and time. Kristeva borrows the term which plays an organizing role in the crucial distinction between the semiotic and the symbolic from Plato’s discussion of place: chora, translated as matrix or receptacle, and associated with maternal giving.)