View source for Julia Kristeva

{{Short description|Bulgarian philosopher (born 1941)}}
{{family name hatnote|Stoyanova|Krasteva|lang=Bulgarian}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name = Julia Kristeva
| image=Julia Kristeva à Paris en 2008.jpg
| caption = Kristeva in 2008
| native_name = Юлия Кръстева
| birth_name = Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1941|6|24|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sliven]], [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]]
| alma_mater  = [[University of Sofia]]
| era = [[Contemporary philosophy]]
| region = [[Western philosophy]]
| school_tradition = {{ublist |[[Continental philosophy]] |[[Psychoanalysis]] |[[Structuralism]] |[[Post-structural feminism]] |[[French feminism]]<ref>Kelly Ives, ''Cixous, Irigaray, Kristeva: The Jouissance of French Feminism'', Crescent Moon Publishing, 2016.</ref>}}
| main_interests = {{ublist |[[Philosophy of language]] |{{hlist|[[Semiotics]]|[[Literary criticism]]}} |[[Philosophy and literature|Philosophy of literature]] |{{hlist|[[Psychoanalysis]]}} |[[Feminism in France|Feminism]]}}
| religion = 
| spouse = [[Philippe Sollers]]
| awards = {{ublist |{{longitem|[[Holberg International Memorial Prize]]}}|{{longitem|[[Hannah Arendt Prize|Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thought]]}}|[[The VIZE 97 Prize|VIZE 97 Prize]]}}
| website = [http://kristeva.fr/ kristeva.fr]
}}
{{Psychoanalysis}}
{{Feminist philosophy sidebar}}
'''Julia Kristeva''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|ɪ|s|t|ə|v|ə}}; {{IPA|fr|kʁisteva|lang}}; born '''Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva''', {{langx|bg|Юлия Стоянова Кръстева}} {{IPA|bg|ˈkrɤstɛvɐ|}}; on 24 June 1941) is a [[Bulgarians in France|Bulgarian-French]] [[philosopher]], [[literary critic]], [[semiotics|semiotician]], [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]], [[French feminist|feminist]], and [[novelist]] who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She has taught at [[Columbia University]], and is now a professor [[emeritus|emerita]] at [[Université Paris Cité]]. The author of more than 30 books, including ''[[Powers of Horror]]'', ''Tales of Love'', ''Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia'', ''Proust and the Sense of Time'', and the trilogy ''Female Genius'', she has been awarded [[Commander of the Legion of Honor]], [[Ordre national du Mérite|Commander of the Order of Merit]], the [[Holberg International Memorial Prize]], the [[Hannah Arendt Prize]], and the Vision 97 Foundation Prize, awarded by the Havel Foundation.

Kristeva became influential in international critical analysis, [[cultural studies]] and [[feminism]] after publishing her first book, ''Semeiotikè'', in 1969. Her sizeable body of work includes books and essays that address [[intertextuality]], the [[semiotic]], and [[abjection]], in the fields of [[linguistics]], literary theory and criticism, [[psychoanalysis]], biography and autobiography, political and [[cultural analysis]], art and [[art history]]. She is prominent in [[structuralism|structuralist]] and [[poststructuralist]] thought.

Kristeva is also the founder of the [[Simone de Beauvoir Prize]] committee.<ref>[http://www.campaign4equality.info/english/spip.php?article440 Simone de Beauvoir Prize 2009 goes to the One Million Signatures Campaign in Iran] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201060949/http://www.campaign4equality.info/english/spip.php?article440 |date=2009-02-01 }}, Change for Equality</ref>

==Life==
Born in [[Sliven]], [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] to Christian parents, Kristeva is the daughter of a church accountant. On her mother's side, she has distant [[Jewish]] ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=York |first1=The New School 66 West 12th Street New |last2=Ny 10011 |date=2018-12-20 |title=Fieldnotes from Europe: Today's Fascists accuse Julia Kristeva |url=https://blogs.newschool.edu/tcds/2018/12/20/fieldnotes-from-europe-todays-fascists-accuse-julia-kristeva/ |access-date=2024-03-06 |website=Transregional Center for Democratic Studies |language=en-US |archive-date=2021-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111084824/https://blogs.newschool.edu/tcds/2018/12/20/fieldnotes-from-europe-todays-fascists-accuse-julia-kristeva/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Kristeva and her sister attended a Francophone school run by [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]] nuns. Kristeva became acquainted with the work of [[Mikhail Bakhtin]] at this time in Bulgaria. Kristeva went on to study at the [[University of Sofia]], and while a postgraduate there obtained a research fellowship that enabled her to move to France in December 1965, when she was 24.<ref name="ChapmanRoutledge">Siobhan Chapman, Christopher Routledge, ''Key thinkers in linguistics and the philosophy of language'', Oxford University Press US, 2005, {{ISBN|0-19-518767-9}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VfrRiCQr4NAC&pg=PA166 Google Print, p. 166] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510102844/https://books.google.com/books?id=VfrRiCQr4NAC&pg=PA166 |date=2023-05-10 }}</ref> She continued her education at several French universities, studying under [[Lucien Goldmann]] and [[Roland Barthes]], among other scholars.<ref>Nilo Kauppi, ''Radicalism in French Culture: A Sociology of French Theory in the 1960s'', Burlington, VT, 2010, p. 25.</ref><ref name="Schrift">{{cite book |last=Schrift |first=Alan D. |title=Twentieth-century French Philosophy: Key Themes and Thinkers |year=2006 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |isbn=1-4051-3217-5 |pages=147}}</ref> On August 2, 1967, Kristeva married the novelist [[Philippe Sollers]],<ref>Benoît Peeters, ''Derrida: A Biography,'' Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013, pp. 176-77.</ref> born Philippe Joyaux.

Kristeva taught at [[Columbia University]] in the early 1970s, and remains a visiting professor.<ref>Riding, Alan, [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/14/arts/correcting-her-idea-of-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all Correcting Her Idea of Politically Correct] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502091532/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/14/arts/correcting-her-idea-of-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all |date=2017-05-02 }}. The New York Times. 14 June 2001.</ref> She has also published under the married name Julia Joyaux.<ref name=locauth>{{citation|url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50045983.html|title=Library of Congress authority record for Julia Kristeva|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=2014-08-24|archive-date=2019-09-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918101812/http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50045983.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=http://data.bnf.fr/11910116/julia_kristeva/|title=BNF data page|publisher=[[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]|access-date=2014-08-24|archive-date=2014-08-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120236/http://data.bnf.fr/11910116/julia_kristeva/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=http://hvolat.netai.net/Kristeva/kristlan.htm|title=Julia Kristeva: A Bibliography|author=Hélène Volat|access-date=2014-08-24|archive-date=2016-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160510192009/http://hvolat.netai.net/Kristeva/kristlan.htm|url-status=dead}} (bibliography page for ''Le Langage, cet inconnu'' (1969), published under the name Julia Joyaux).</ref>

==Work==
After joining the '[[Tel Quel]] group' founded by Sollers, Kristeva focused on the politics of language and became an active member of the group. She trained in psychoanalysis, and earned her degree in 1979. In some ways, her work can be seen as trying to adapt a [[psychoanalytic]] approach to the [[poststructuralist]] criticism. For example, her view of the [[Subject (philosophy)|subject]], and its construction, shares similarities with [[Sigmund Freud]] and [[Jacques Lacan]]. However, Kristeva rejects any understanding of the subject in a structuralist sense; instead, she favors a subject always "[[Process philosophy|in process]]" or "on trial".<ref>{{cite book|last=McAfee|first=Noêlle|title=Julia Kristeva|year=2004|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0-203-63434-9|page=38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1F4oOL1PACMC&q=sujet+en+proces+on+trial&pg=PA38}}</ref> In this way, she contributes to the poststructuralist critique of essentialized structures, whilst preserving the teachings of psychoanalysis. She travelled to China in the 1970s and later wrote ''About Chinese Women'' (1977).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ms.cc.sunysb.edu/~hvolat/kristeva/krist01.htm |title=State University of New York at Stony Brook |access-date=2004-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041120233104/http://ms.cc.sunysb.edu/~hvolat/kristeva/krist01.htm |archive-date=2004-11-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/julia-kristeva-on-genie-feminine-and-art |title=Tate Britain Online Event: Julia Kristeva |access-date=2014-07-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180403002323/http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/julia-kristeva-on-genie-feminine-and-art |archive-date=2018-04-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pileface.com/sollers/article.php3?id_article=49|title=Who's who in Les Samouraïs - Philippe Sollers/Pileface|website=www.pileface.com|access-date=2006-02-20|archive-date=2018-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215224930/http://www.pileface.com/sollers/article.php3?id_article=49|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lacan.com/perfume/kristeva.htm|title=Julia Kristeva/Josefina Ayerza/Flash Art|website=www.lacan.com|access-date=2020-07-14|archive-date=2017-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727183054/http://www.lacan.com/perfume/kristeva.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/mar/14/highereducation.research1|title=The ideas interview: Julia Kristeva|date=March 14, 2006|website=the Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kristeva.fr/|title=Julia Kristeva - site officiel|website=www.kristeva.fr|access-date=2009-08-06|archive-date=2011-07-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721001651/http://www.kristeva.fr/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===The "semiotic" and the "symbolic"===<!--Linked from infobox above-->
One of Kristeva's most important contributions is that signification is composed of two elements, the symbolic and the ''semiotic'', the latter being distinct from the discipline of [[semiotics]] founded by [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]. As explained by Augustine Perumalil, Kristeva's "semiotic is closely related to the infantile [[pre-Oedipal]] referred to in the works of Freud, [[Otto Rank]], [[Melanie Klein]], British [[Object Relation]] psychoanalysis, and Lacan's pre-[[mirror stage]]. It is an emotional field, tied to the [[instincts]], which dwells in the fissures and [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] of language rather than in the [[Denotation (Semiotics)|denotative meanings]] of words."<ref>{{cite book|last=Perumalil|first=Augustine|title=The History of Women in Philosophy|page=344}}</ref> Furthermore, according to Birgit Schippers, the semiotic is a realm associated with the musical, the poetic, the rhythmic, and that which lacks structure and meaning. It is closely tied to the "feminine", and represents the undifferentiated state of the pre-Mirror Stage infant.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schippers|first=Birgit|title=Julia Kristeva and Feminist Thought|date=2011}}</ref>

Upon entering the Mirror Stage, the child learns to distinguish between self and other, and enters the realm of shared cultural meaning, known as [[The Symbolic|the symbolic]]. In ''Desire in Language'' (1980), Kristeva describes the symbolic as the space in which the development of language allows the child to become a "speaking subject," and to develop a sense of identity separate from the mother. This process of separation is known as abjection, whereby the child must reject and move away from the mother in order to enter into the world of language, culture, meaning, and the social. This realm of language is called the symbolic and is contrasted with the semiotic in that it is associated with the masculine, the law, and structure. Kristeva departs from Lacan in the idea that even after entering the symbolic, the subject continues to oscillate between the semiotic and the symbolic. Therefore, rather than arriving at a fixed identity, the subject is permanently "in process". Because female children continue to identify to some degree with the mother figure, they are especially likely to retain a close connection to the semiotic. This continued identification with the mother may result in what Kristeva refers to in ''[[Black Sun (Kristeva book)|Black Sun]]'' (1989) as [[melancholia]] ([[Major depressive disorder|depression]]), given that female children simultaneously reject and identify with the mother figure.

It has also been suggested (e.g., Creed, 1993) that the degradation of women and women's bodies in popular culture (and particularly, for example, in [[slasher film]]s) emerges because of the threat to identity that the mother's body poses: it is a reminder of time spent in the undifferentiated state of the semiotic, where one has no concept of self or identity. After abjecting the mother, subjects retain an [[Unconscious mind|unconscious]] fascination with the semiotic, desiring to reunite with the mother, while at the same time fearing the loss of identity that accompanies it. [[Misogyny in horror films|Slasher films]] thus provide a way for audience members to safely reenact the process of abjection by vicariously expelling and destroying the mother figure.

Kristeva is also known for her adoption of [[Plato]]’s idea of the ''[[Khôra|chora]]'', meaning "a nourishing maternal space" (Schippers, 2011). Kristeva's idea of the ''chora'' has been interpreted in several ways: as a reference to the uterus, as a metaphor for the relationship between the mother and child, and as the temporal period preceding the Mirror Stage. In her essay ''Motherhood According to [[Giovanni Bellini]]'' from ''Desire in Language'' (1980), Kristeva refers to the ''chora'' as a "non-expressive totality formed by drives and their stases in a motility that is as full of movement as it is regulated." She goes on to suggest that it is the mother's body that mediates between the ''chora'' and the symbolic realm: the mother has access to culture and meaning, yet also forms a totalizing bond with the child.

Kristeva is also noted for her work on the concept of [[intertextuality]].

===Anthropology and psychology===<!--This is a great example of how 'Theory' can be explained clearly, and with reference to the theoreticians' work-->
Kristeva argues that [[anthropology]] and [[psychology]], or the connection between the social and the subject, do not represent each other, but rather follow the same logic: the survival of the group and the subject. Furthermore, in her analysis of [[Oedipus]], she claims that the speaking subject cannot exist on his/her own, but that he/she "stands on the fragile threshold as if stranded on account of an impossible demarcation" (''[[Powers of Horror]]'', p.&nbsp;85).
[[File:Julia-Kristeva-Island-Of-Re-2005.jpg|thumb|Julia Kristeva in 2005]]
In her comparison between the two disciplines, Kristeva claims that the way in which an individual excludes the abject mother as a means of forming an identity, is the same way in which societies are constructed. On a broader scale, cultures exclude the maternal and the feminine, and by this come into being.{{clarify|date=April 2012}}

==Feminism==
Kristeva has been regarded as a key proponent of [[French feminism]] together with [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Hélène Cixous]], and [[Luce Irigaray]].<ref>Vanda Zajko and [[Miriam Leonard]] (eds.), ''Laughing with Medusa''. Oxford University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-19-927438-X}}</ref><ref>[[Griselda Pollock]], ''Inscriptions in the feminine''. In: ''Inside the Visible'' edited by [[Catherine de Zegher]]. MIT Press, 1996.</ref> Kristeva has had a remarkable influence on feminism and feminist literary studies<ref>''Parallax, n. 8'', [Vol. 4(3)], 1998.</ref><ref>Humm, Maggie, ''Modernist Women and Visual Cultures''. Rutgers University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-8135-3266-3}}</ref> in the US and the UK, as well as on readings into contemporary art<ref>[[Griselda Pollock]], ''Encounters in the Virtual Feminist Museum''. Routledge, 2007.</ref><ref>[[Maggie Humm|Humm, Maggie]], ''Feminism and Film''. Indiana University press, 1997. {{ISBN|0-253-33334-2}}</ref> although her relation to feminist circles and movements in France has been quite controversial. Kristeva made a famous disambiguation of three types of feminism in "Women's Time" in ''New Maladies of the Soul'' (1993); while rejecting the first two types, including that of Beauvoir, her stands are sometimes considered as rejecting feminism altogether. Kristeva proposed the idea of multiple sexual identities against the joined code {{clarify|date=April 2012}} of "unified feminine language".

===Denunciation of identity politics===
Kristeva argues that her writings have been misunderstood by American feminist academics in the [[identity politics]] tradition. In Kristeva's view, it was not enough simply to dissect the structure of language in order to find its hidden meaning. Language should also be viewed through the prisms of history and of individual psychic and sexual experiences. This [[Post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] approach enabled specific social groups to trace the source of their oppression to the very language they used. However, Kristeva believes that it is harmful to posit collective identity above individual identity, and that this political assertion of sexual, ethnic, and religious identities is ultimately [[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]].<ref>Riding, Alan, [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/14/arts/correcting-her-idea-of-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all Correcting Her Idea of Politically Correct] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502091532/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/14/arts/correcting-her-idea-of-politically-correct.html?pagewanted=all |date=2017-05-02 }}. ''New York Times''. June 14, 2001</ref>

==Novelist==
Kristeva has written a number of novels that resemble detective stories. While the books maintain narrative suspense and develop a stylized surface, her readers also encounter ideas intrinsic to her theoretical projects. Her characters reveal themselves mainly through psychological devices, making her type of fiction mostly resemble the later work of [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]]. Her fictional oeuvre, which includes ''The Old Man and the Wolves'', ''Murder in Byzantium'', and ''Possessions'', while often allegorical, also approaches the autobiographical in some passages, especially with one of the protagonists of ''Possessions'', Stephanie Delacour—a French journalist—who can be seen as Kristeva's alter ego. ''Murder in Byzantium'' deals with themes from orthodox Christianity and politics; she referred to it as "a kind of anti-[[The Da Vinci Code|Da Vinci Code]]".<ref name=sutherland>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/ideas/story/0,,1730437,00.html|title=The ideas interview: Julia Kristeva; Why is a great critic ashamed of being fashionable?|first=John|last=Sutherland|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=14 March 2006|access-date=23 November 2014|archive-date=21 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221193432/https://www.theguardian.com/ideas/story/0,,1730437,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Honors==
For her "innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture and literature", Kristeva was awarded the [[Holberg International Memorial Prize]] in 2004. She won the 2006 [[Hannah Arendt Prize]] for Political Thought. She has also been awarded Commander of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Order of Merit, and the Vaclav Havel Prize.<ref>http://www.holbergprisen.no/en/julia-kristeva/french-order{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> On October 10, 2019, she received an ''honoris causa'' doctorate from [[Catholic University of Portugal|Universidade Católica Portuguesa]].

==Scholarly reception==
[[Roman Jakobson]] said that "Both readers and listeners, whether agreeing or in stubborn disagreement with Julia Kristeva, feel indeed attracted to her contagious voice and to her genuine gift of questioning generally adopted 'axioms,' and her contrary gift of releasing various 'damned questions' from their traditional question marks."<ref>''Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art'', Columbia University Press, 1980 (In Preface)</ref>

[[Roland Barthes]] comments that "Julia Kristeva changes the place of things: she always destroys the last prejudice, the one you thought you could be reassured by, could be take &#91;sic&#93; pride in; what she displaces is the already-said, the déja-dit, i.e., the instance of the signified, i.e., stupidity; what she subverts is authority -the authority of monologic science, of filiation."<ref>Roland Barthes, ''The Rustle of language'', p 168</ref> 
 
[[Ian Almond]] criticizes Kristeva's ethnocentrism. He cites [[Gayatri Spivak]]'s conclusion that Kristeva's book ''About Chinese Women'' "belongs to that very eighteenth century [that] Kristeva scorns" after pinpointing "the brief, expansive, often completely ungrounded way in which she writes about two thousand years of a culture she is unfamiliar with".<ref>Ian Almond, ''The New Orientalists: Postmodern Representations of Islam from Foucault to Baudrillard'', I.B.Tauris, 2007, p. 132</ref> Almond notes the absence of sophistication in Kristeva's remarks concerning the Muslim world and the dismissive terminology she uses to describe its culture and believers.<ref>Ian Almond, ''The New Orientalists: Postmodern Representations of Islam from Foucault to Baudrillard'', I.B.Tauris, 2007</ref> He criticizes Kristeva's opposition which juxtaposes "Islamic societies" against "democracies where life is still fairly pleasant" by pointing out that Kristeva displays no awareness of the complex and nuanced debate ongoing among women theorists in the Muslim world, and that she does not refer to anything other than the Rushdie fatwa in dismissing the entire Muslim faith as "reactionary and persecutory".<ref>Ian Almond, ''The New Orientalists: Postmodern Representations of Islam from Foucault to Baudrillard'', I.B.Tauris, 2007, pp. 154–55</ref>

In ''[[Impostures intellectuelles]]'' (1997), physics professors [[Alan Sokal]] and [[Jean Bricmont]] devote a chapter to Kristeva's use of mathematics in her early writings. They argue that Kristeva fails to show the relevance of the mathematical concepts she discusses to linguistics and the other fields she studies, and that no such relevance exists.<ref>[[Alan Sokal]] and [[Jean Bricmont]], ''Intellectual Impostures'', Profile Books, 1998, p. 47</ref>

==Alleged collaboration with the Communist Regime in Bulgaria==
In 2018, Bulgaria's state Dossier Commission announced that Kristeva had been an agent for the [[Committee for State Security (Bulgaria)|Committee for State Security]] under the code name "Sabina". She was supposedly recruited in June 1971, five years earlier she left Bulgaria to study in France.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 March 2018 |title=Julia Kristeva avait été recrutée par les services secrets communistes bulgares |url=https://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20180328.OBS4308/julia-kristeva-avait-ete-recrutee-par-les-services-secrets-communistes-bulgares.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329054334/https://bibliobs.nouvelobs.com/actualites/20180328.OBS4308/julia-kristeva-avait-ete-recrutee-par-les-services-secrets-communistes-bulgares.html |archive-date=29 March 2018 |access-date=29 March 2018 |website=Bibliobs}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sofia |first=Reuters in |date=March 28, 2018 |title=Julia Kristeva was communist secret agent, Bulgaria claims |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/28/julia-kristeva-communist-secret-agent-bulgaria-claims |website=the Guardian}}</ref> Under the [[People's Republic of Bulgaria]], any Bulgarian who wanted to travel abroad had to apply for an exit visa and get an approval from the Ministry of Interior. The process was long and difficult because anyone who made it to the west could declare political asylum.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/redriviera01ghod | quote=declare political asylum. |title = The Red Riviera: Gender, tourism, and postsocialism on the Black Sea| publisher=Duke University Press |last1 = Ghodsee|first1 = Kristen Rogheh|date = November 2005}}</ref> Kristeva has called the allegations "grotesque and false".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://balkaninsight.com/2018/03/29/julia-kristeva-denies-being-communist-state-security-spy-03-29-2018/|title=Julia Kristeva Denies Being Bulgarian Security Agent|date=March 29, 2018|access-date=July 14, 2020|archive-date=July 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200714140040/https://balkaninsight.com/2018/03/29/julia-kristeva-denies-being-communist-state-security-spy-03-29-2018/|url-status=live}}</ref> On 30 March, the state Dossier Commission began publishing online the entire set of documents reflecting Kristeva's activity as an informant of the former Committee for State Security.<ref>[https://sofiaglobe.com/2018/03/30/bulgarias-dossier-commission-posts-julia-kristeva-files-online/ ″Bulgaria’s Dossier Commission posts Julia Kristeva files online″] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707233601/https://sofiaglobe.com/2018/03/30/bulgarias-dossier-commission-posts-julia-kristeva-files-online/ |date=2019-07-07 }}, The Sofia Globe, 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.</ref><ref>[http://www.novinite.com/articles/189165/Unprecedented+-+The+Dossier+Commission+Published+the+Dossier+of+Julia+Kristeva+AKA+Agent+%22Sabina%22 ″Unprecedented - The Dossier Commission Published the Dossier of Julia Kristeva AKA Agent "Sabina"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221203149/https://www.novinite.com/articles/189165/Unprecedented+-+The+Dossier+Commission+Published+the+Dossier+of+Julia+Kristeva+AKA+Agent+%22Sabina%22 |date=2019-12-21 }}, novinite.com, 30 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.</ref><ref>[https://www.comdos.bg/%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0/p/search/?ApprovedPersonFirstName=%D0%AE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F&ApprovedPersonMidName=%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0&ApprovedPersonLastName=%D0%9A%D1%80%D1%8A%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0&ApprovedPersonBirthDate=&ApprovedPersonBirthLocation=&ExaminationPersonPosition=&search=%D0%A2%D1%8A%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5 Documents on the Dossier Commission’s website (in Bulgarian)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221200145/https://www.comdos.bg/%D0%9D%D0%B0%D1%87%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%BE/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0/p/search/?ApprovedPersonFirstName=%D0%AE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%8F&ApprovedPersonMidName=%D0%A1%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0&ApprovedPersonLastName=%D0%9A%D1%80%D1%8A%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0&ApprovedPersonBirthDate=&ApprovedPersonBirthLocation=&ExaminationPersonPosition=&search=%D0%A2%D1%8A%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5 |date=2019-12-21 }}. Retrieved 30 March 2018.</ref><ref>Христо Христов, [http://desebg.com/medii/3528-2018-03-29-12-23-51 ″Онлайн: Първите документи за Юлия Кръстева в Държавна сигурност″] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231042232/http://desebg.com/medii/3528-2018-03-29-12-23-51 |date=2018-12-31 }}, desebg.com, 29 March 2018 (Dossier of ″Sabina″, in Bulgarian). Retrieved 31 March 2018.</ref><ref>Христо Христов, [http://desebg.com/ucheni/3529-2018-03-30-05-01-16 ″Само на desebg.com: Цялото досие на Юлия Кръстева онлайн (лично и работно дело)″] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529040226/http://desebg.com/ucheni/3529-2018-03-30-05-01-16 |date=2019-05-29 }}, desebg.com, 30 March 2018 (Dossier of ″Sabina″, in Bulgarian). Retrieved 31 March 2018.</ref><ref>Jennifer Schuessler and Boryana Dzhambazova, [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/arts/julia-kristeva-bulgaria-communist-spy.html ″Bulgaria Says French Thinker Was a Secret Agent. She Calls It a ‘Barefaced Lie.’″] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219122600/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/arts/julia-kristeva-bulgaria-communist-spy.html |date=2019-12-19 }}, ″The New York Times″, 1 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.</ref> She vigorously denies the charges.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/arts/julia-kristeva-bulgaria-communist-spy.html|title=Bulgaria Says French Thinker Was a Secret Agent. She Calls It a 'Barefaced Lie.'|last1=Schuessler|first1=Jennifer|date=2018-04-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-04-02|last2=Dzhambazova|first2=Boryana|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2019-12-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219122600/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/arts/julia-kristeva-bulgaria-communist-spy.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Neal Ascherson]] wrote: "...the recent fuss about Julia Kristeva boils down to nothing much, although it has suited some to inflate it into a fearful scandal... But the reality shown in her files is trivial. After settling in Paris in 1965, she was cornered by Bulgarian spooks who pointed out to her that she still had a vulnerable family in the home country. So she agreed to regular meetings over many years, in the course of which she seems to have told her handlers nothing more than gossip about [[Louis Aragon|Aragon]], [[Georges Bataille|Bataille]] & Co. from the [[Rive Gauche|Left Bank]] cafés – stuff they could have read in ''[[Le Canard enchaîné]]''... the combined intelligence value of its product and her reports was almost zero. The Bulgarian security men seem to have known they were being played. But never mind: they could impress their boss by showing him a real international celeb on their books..."<ref>Neal Ascherson, [https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n14/neal-ascherson/dont-imagine-youre-smarter "Don’t imagine you’re smarter"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015075601/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n14/neal-ascherson/dont-imagine-youre-smarter |date=2019-10-15 }}, London Review of Books, 19 July 2018.</ref>

==Selected writings==

=== Linguistic and literature ===
*''Séméiôtiké: recherches pour une sémanalyse,'' Paris, Seuil, 1969 (trans. in ''Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art,'' New York, Columbia University Press, Blackwell, London, 1980)
*''Le langage, cet inconnu: Une initiation à la linguistique,'' S.G.P.P., 1969; new ed., coll. Points, Seuil, 1981 (trans. in 1981 as ''Language. The Unknown: an Initiation into Linguistics'', Columbia University Press, Harvester Wheatsheaf, London, 1989)
*''La révolution du langage poétique: L'avant-garde à la fin du 19e siècle: Lautréamont et Mallarmé,'' Seuil, Paris, 1974 (abridged trans. containing only the first third of the original French edition, ''Revolution in Poetic Language,'' Columbia University Press, New York, 1984)
*''Polylogue'', Seuil, Paris, 1977 (trans. in ''Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art,'' New York, Columbia University Press, Blackwell, London, 1980)
*''Histoires d’amour'', Denoël, Paris, 1983 (trans. ''Tales of Love,'' Columbia University Press, New York, 1987)
*''Le temps sensible. Proust et l’expérience littéraire,'' Gallimard, Paris, 1994 (trans. ''Time and Sense: Proust and the experience of literature'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1996)
*''Dostoïevski'', Buchet-Chastel, Paris, 2020

=== Psychoanalysis and philosophy ===
*''Pouvoirs de l’horreur. Essai sur l’abjection'' (trans. ''[[Powers of Horror|Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection]]'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1982)
*''Au commencement était l’amour. Psychanalyse et foi'', Hachette, Paris, 1985 (trans. ''In the Beginning Was Love. Psychoanalysis and Faith'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1987)
*''Soleil Noir. Dépression et mélancolie'', Gallimard, Paris, 1987 (trans. ''The Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia,'' Columbia University Press, New York, 1989)
*''Etrangers à nous-mêmes'', Fayard, Paris, 1988 (''Strangers to Ourselves'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1991)
*''Lettre ouverte à Harlem Désir'', Rivages, Paris, 1990, (trans. ''Nations without Nationalism''. Columbia University Press, New York, 1993
*''Les Nouvelles maladies de l’âme'', Fayard, Paris, 1993 (trans. ''New Maladies of the Soul.'' Columbia University Press, New York, 1995)
*''Sens et non sens de la révolte'', Fayard, Paris, 1996 (trans. ''The Sense of Revolt'', Columbia University Press, 2000)
* ''La Révolte intime'', Fayard, 1997 (trans. ''Intimate Revolt'', Columbia University Press, 2002)
*''Le Génie féminin: la vie, la folie, les mots'', Fayard, Paris, 1999–2002 (trans. ''Female Genius'': ''Life, Madness, Words'', Columbia University Press, New York, 2001–2004):
**1. ''Hannah Arendt ou l’action comme naissance et comme étrangeté'', vol. 1, Fayard, Paris, 1999
**''2. Melanie Klein ou le matricide comme douleur et comme créativité: la folie'', vol. 2, Fayard, Paris, 2000
**''3. Colette ou la chair du monde'', vol. 3, Fayard, Paris, 2002
*''Vision capitales'', Réunion des musées nationaux, 1998 (trans. ''The Severed Head: capital visions,'' Columbia University Press, New York, 2012)

=== Autobiographical essays ===
*''Des Chinoises'', édition des Femmes, Paris, 1974 (''About Chinese Women,'' Marion Boyars, London, 1977
*''Du mariage considéré comme un des Beaux-Arts'', Fayard, Paris, 2015 (''Marriage as a Fine Art'' (with [[Philippe Sollers]]) Columbia University Press, New York 2016
*''Je me voyage. Mémoires. Entretien avec Samuel Dock'', Fayard, Paris, 2016 (''A Journey Across Borders and Through Identities. Conversations with Samuel Dock'', in ''The Philosophy of Julia Kristeva'', ed. Sara Beardsworth, The Library of Living Philosophers, vo. 36, Open Cort, Chicago, 2020)

=== Collection of essays ===
*''The Kristeva Reader'', ed. Toril Moi, Columbia University Press, New York, 1986
*''The Portable Kristeva'', ed. Kelly Oliver, Columbia University Press, New York, 1997
*''Crisis of the European Subject'', Other Press, New York, 2000
*''La Haine et le pardon'', ed. with a foreword by Pierre-Louis Fort, Fayard, Paris, 2005 (trans. ''Hatred and forgiveness'', Columbia University Press, New York, 2010)
*''Pulsions du temps'', foreword, edition and notes by David Uhrig, Fayard, Paris, 2013 (trans. ''Passions of Our Time'', ed. with a foreword by Lawrence D. Kritzman, Columbia University Press, New York, 2019)

===Novels===
*''Les Samouraïs'', Fayard, Paris, 1990 (trans. ''The Samurai: A Novel'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1992)
*''Le Vieil homme et les loups'', Fayard, Paris, 1991(trans. ''The Old Man and the Wolves'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1994)
*''Possessions'', Fayard, Paris, 1996 (trans. ''Possessions: A Novel'', Columbia University Press, New York, 1998)
*''Meurtre à Byzance'', Fayard, Paris, 2004 (trans. ''Murder in Byzantium'', Columbia University Press, New York, 2006)
*''Thérèse mon amour : récit. Sainte Thérèse d’Avila'', Fayard, 2008 (trans. ''Teresa, my love. An Imagined Life of the Saint of Avila'', Columbia University Press, New York, 2015)
*''L’Horloge enchantée'', Fayard, Paris, 2015 (trans. ''The Enchanted Clock,'' Columbia University Press, 2017)

==See also==
{{Columns-list|
*[[Capacity to be alone]]
*''[[Écriture féminine]]''
*[[Khôra]]
*[[List of thinkers influenced by deconstruction]]
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Beardsworth, Sara, ''The Philosophy of Julia Kristeva'', The Library of Living Philosophers, vol. 36, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Open Court, Chicago, 2020
*Jardine, Alice, ''At the Risk of Thinking. An Intellectual Biography of Julia Kristeva'', Bloomsbury, New York, 2020
*Ivantcheva-Merjanska, Irene, ''Ecrire dans la langue de l'autre. Assia Djebar et Julia Kristeva,'' L'Harmattan, Paris, 2015.
* Kelly Ives, ''Julia Kristeva: art, love, melancholy, philosophy, semiotics and psychoanalysis'', Crescent Moon, Maidstone, 2013
*Becker-Leckrone, Megan, ''Julia Kristeva And Literary Theory'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
* Beardsworth, Sara, ''Psychoanalysis and Modernity'', Suny Press, Albany, 2004
*Radden, Jennifer, ''The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva'', Oxford University Press, 2000
* Lechte, John, and Margaroni, Maria, ''Julia Kristeva: Live Theory'', Continuum, 2004
* McAfee, Noëlle, ''Julia Kristeva'', Routledge, London, 2004
* Smith, Anna, ''Julia Kristeva: Readings of Exile and Estrangement'', St. Martin's Press, New york, 1996.
*[[Kelly Oliver|Oliver, Kelly]], ''Ethics, Politics, and Difference in Julia Kristeva's Writing'', Routledge Édition, New York, 1993
*Crownfield, David, ''Body/Text in Julia Kristeva: Religion, Women, and Psychoanalysis'', State University of New York Press, 1992
*Oliver, Kelly, ''Reading Kristeva. Unraveling the Double-bind'', Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1983

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Official website|http://kristeva.fr/}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170801171230/http://www.holbergprisen.no/julia-kristeva/holbergprisens-symposium-2004-julia-kristeva.html Holberg Prize]
* [http://www.exberliner.com/articles/%22one-needs-to-believe%2C-but-what%27s-more-important-is-to-question-what-we-believe%22/index.html Interview with Julia Kristeva in Exberliner Magazine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717131357/http://www.exberliner.com/articles/%22one-needs-to-believe%2C-but-what%27s-more-important-is-to-question-what-we-believe%22/index.html |date=2012-07-17 }}
* [http://hvolat.com/Kristeva/kristeva.htm Julia Kristeva: A Bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421172921/http://hvolat.com/Kristeva/kristeva.htm |date=2019-04-21 }} by Hélène Volat
* Goodnow, Katherine J.(2015). ''[http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=GoodnowKristeva Kristeva in Focus: From Theory to Film Analysis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319000322/http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=GoodnowKristeva |date=2015-03-19 }}''. [[Berghahn Books]].

{{Feminist theory}}
{{The VIZE 97 Prize}}
{{Authority control}}

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