Julia Kristeva

Sara Beardsworth

Description

Honorable Mention, 2006 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship presented by the Section on Psychoanalysis of the Canadian Psychological Association

This is the first systematic overview of Julia Kristeva's vision and work in relation to philosophical modernity. It provides a clear, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary analysis of her thought on psychoanalysis, art, ethics, politics, and feminism in the secular aftermath of religion. Sara Beardsworth shows that Kristeva's multiple perspectives explore the powers and limits of different discourses as responses to the historical failures of Western cultures, failures that are undergone and disclosed in psychoanalysis.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Suffering: A Piece of the Reality that has Come to grief
The Tendential Severance of the Semiotic and Symbolic

Part I. From the Revolutionary Standpoint to the Nihilism Problematic

1. The Early View of Psychoanalysis and Art

Introduction
The Lacanian Background
Revolution in Poetic Language

2. Primary Narcissism

The Appearance of the Nihilism Problematic
Primary Idealization

3. Ab-jection

Introduction
The Phobic Object
"Where Am I?"

4. Primal Loss

Introduction
Intolerance for Loss
The Signifying Failure

Part II. Art and Religion: Kristeva's Minor Histories of Modernity

5. The Powers and Limitations of Religion

Introduction
Psychoanalysis and the Sacred
Religious Codifications of Abjection

6. The Kristevan Aesthetic

Introduction
Holbein: "God is dead"
Duras: A New Suffering World
A New Amatory World

Part III. The Social and Political Implications of Kristeva's Thought

7. Ethics and Politics

Introduction
The Ethics of Psychoanalysis
Nations Without Nationalism

8. Kristeva's Feminism

Introduction
"Woman" and "Nature"
Kristeva or Butler?
The Maternal Feminine

Conclusion: Revolt Culture and Exemplary Lives

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791484531
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

j u l i a k r i s t e v a psychoanalysis and modernity

sara beardsworth

Julia Kristeva

SUNY series in Gender Theory Tina Chanter, editor

J U L I A K R I S T E VA

Psychoanalysis and Modernity

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Sara Beardsworth

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2004 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production by Judith Block Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Beardsworth, Sara. Julia Kristeva : psychoanalysis and modernity / Sara Beardsworth. p. cm. — (SUNY series in gender theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–7914–6189–0 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0–7914–6190–4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Kristeva, Julia, 1941– I. Title. II. Series

B2430.K7544B43 2004 194—dc22

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2004041628

To my family

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79 79 84 90

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Chapter 1. The Early View of Psychoanalysis and Art Introduction The Lacanian Background Revolution in Poetic Language

95 95 98 104

55 55 61

25 25 27 39

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1 2 12

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Acknowledgments

C O N T E N T S

Chapter 4. Primal Loss Introduction Intolerance for Loss The Signifying Failure

Chapter 2. Primary Narcissism The Appearance of the Nihilism Problematic Primary Idealization

Chapter 3. Ab-jection Introduction The Phobic Object “WhereAm I?”

Introduction Suffering: A Piece of the Reality that has Come to Grief The Tendential Severance of the Semiotic and Symbolic

Part I. From the Revolutionary Standpoint to the Nihilism Problematic

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Contents

Part II. Religion and Art: Kristeva’s Minor Histories of Modernity

Chapter 5. The Powers and Limitations of Religion Introduction Psychoanalysis and the Sacred Religious Codifications of Abjection

Chapter 6. The Kristevan Aesthetic Introduction Holbein: “God is Dead” Duras: A New Suffering World A New Amatory World

Part III. The Social and Political Implications of Kristeva’s Thought

Chapter 7. Ethics and Politics Introduction The Ethics of Psychoanalysis Nations Without Nationalism

Chapter 8. Kristeva’s Feminism Introduction “Woman” and “Nature” Kristeva or Butler? The Maternal Feminine

Conclusion: Revolt Culture and Exemplary Lives

Notes

Bibliography

Index

115 115 119 124

143 143 145 153 162

169 169 172 206

217 217 219 226 248

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277

287

295

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

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his book has taken some while to come to fruition. Its planning and T writing covers a period that includes my move from England to America. During the early stages I spent an enlivening two semesters in 1996–1997 as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Vanderbilt Uni- versity. My thanks to David Wood for making this possible, and for his enthu- siastic encouragement of my plans to seek a position in America. While doing this, I received support in 1997–1998 as Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Historical and Cultural Studies at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. At the University of Memphis a New Faculty Research Initiation Award gave generous financial support for the summer of 2000, which enabled me to make strides in completing the first draft of the book. More specific intellectual and personal debts are owed to others, including those who, for different reasons, have not been close by as the project was brought to completion. My earliest philosophical debt is to Gillian Rose, the director of my doctoral thesis undertaken at the University of Warwick. Gillian gave me, and others I believe, an initiation into European philosophical thought of such intellectual vigor and spiritual strength that it will last a life- time. I like to think that she would have appreciated some of the directions taken in this book. The development of my thinking was greatly encouraged and stimulated by Richard Beardsworth and Howard Caygill. Their support for my chosen path of philosophy, as well as their appreciation of and critical responses to my attempts to bring together divergent aspects of European thought, have been invaluable. There is one person who has seen this project through from start to finish, and who has given unflagging support in the whole task. I owe my deepest debt

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