Kristeva, Julia (1941–)

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Kristeva, Julia (1941–)

French linguist and literary critic. Born 1941 in Bulgaria; m. Philippe Sollers.

Moved to France at 23 and studied Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis; was active member of leftist intellectual group Tel Quel and published articles on language in Critique and other journals; became chair of Linguistics at University of Paris and guest lecturer at Columbia University, NY; works, which address themes of feminine identity, motherhood, abjection, foreignness, and madness, include Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art (1980), Powers of Horror (1980), Revolution in Poetic Language (1984), Tales of Love (1987), Soleil noir: dépression et mélancholie (1987), and Strangers to Ourselves (1991), winner of the Prix Henri Hertz.

See also Toril Moi, ed., The Kristeva Reader (Columbia U. Press, 1986); Kelly Oliver, Reading Kristeva: Unraveling the Double-bind (Indiana U. Press, 1993).

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