Julia Kristeva (RLE Feminist Theory) - Softcover

Lechte, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415754194 ISBN 13: 9780415754194

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

A leading literary critic and psychoanalyst, Julia Kristeva is one of the most significant French thinkers writing today. In this up-to-date survey of her work, John Lechte outlines fully and systematically her intellectual development. He traces it from her work on Bakhtin and the logic of poetic language in the 1960s, through her influential theories of the ‘symbolic’ and the ‘semiotic’ in the 1970s, to her analyses of horror, love, melancholy and cosmopolitanism in the 1980s. He provides an insight into the intellectual and historical context which gave rise to Kristeva’s thought, showing how thinkers such as Roland Barthes, Emile Benviste and Georges Bataille have been important in stimulating her own reflections. He concludes with an overall assessment of Kristeva’s work, looking in particular at her importance for feminism and postmodern thought in general.

Essential reading for all those who wish to extend their understanding of this important thinker, this first full-length study of Kristeva’s work will be of interest to students of literature, sociology, critical theory, feminist theory, French studies and psychoanalysis.

About this title

About the Author:

John Lechte lectures at Macquarie University.Maria Margaroni lectures at the University of Cyprus.

Review:

'...sociologist John Lechte now successfully collaborates with cultural and literary theorist Maria Margaroni to reassess Kristeva's early work and to explore the new directions and socio-political concerns of her more recent work.' The European Legacy 11, (4): 2006 (Charlotte Berkowitz)

'Julia Kristeva: Live Theory is another fine contribution to Continuum's 'Live Theory' series....Lechte and Margaroni succeed in challenging the popular view that the only route into a theorist's work is through the theorist her/himself. This is because the volume they offer does an excellent job of simplifying - and consolidating - to a considerable extent many of Kristeva's often obscure and convoluted ideas. I found particularly sharp, cogent and regarding John Lechte's interview with Julia Kristeva....this is a remarkably exhilarating book, greater than the sum of its parts, producing an intense conversational space that will easily draw in the perceptive specialist reader.'Akinbola E. Akinwumi, Political Studies Review, 2006, 4 (3)

'...sociologist John Lechte now successfully collaborates with cultural and literary theorist Maria Margaroni to reassess Kristeva's early work and to explore the new directions and socio-political concerns of her more recent work.' The European Legacy 11, (4): 2006 (Sanford Lakoff)

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0415754194
• ISBN 13: 9780415754194
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 250