Julia Kristeva : Speaking the Unspeakable

Julia Kristeva is one of France's leading feminist theorists. Since the publication of her first work in the journal "Critique" in 1967, her interests have shifted from linguistic science, structuralism and critical analyses of the maternal, to an increasing emphasis on psychoanalysis and its cultural importance. The most striking feature of Kristeva's critical work, apart from her sheer productivity, is its conceptual coherence and the sense it produces of a vast, integrated work-in-progress of cultural critique. Smith's focus in this introductory study is on Kristeva's writings in the light of her contemporary activity as a writer, teacher and analyst in fin de siecle Western culture. She provides an account of the concepts, themes and controversies that are central to Kristeva's thinking, and assesses the critical purchase of Kristeva's work, her influence on contemporary critical activity and the importance of her willingness to be a public thinker. Smith presents Kristeva as a vibrant thinker who has constantly engaged with the cultural environment of which she is a product, and whose influence extends well beyond the world of French intellectual activity.