Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva (Юлия Кръстева; 24 June 1941, Sliven, Bulgaria) is a philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and novelist who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She has taught at Columbia University, and is now a professor emerita at Université Paris Cité.

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 which 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.

Works

(in French unless noted otherwise)

• Le Langage, cet inconnu. Une initiation à la linguistique, SGPP, 1969, Paris: Seuil, 1981. Published under the name Julia Joyaux.
  • El lenguaje, ese desconocido, Fundamentos, 1969, PDF. (Spanish)

• Séméiôtiké: recherches pour une sémanalyse, Paris: Seuil, 1969; repr., Paris: Seuil (Points), 2014.
  • Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Leon S. Roudiez, trans. Thomas Gora, Alice A. Jardine, and Leon S. Roudiez, Oxford: Blackwell, 1980; New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, 305 pp; repr., 2024, 352 pp. Contains essays from Séméiôtiké and Polylogue (1977). Publisher, [1]. Review: Judith Butler (Hypatia). (English)

• La révolution du langage poétique. L'avant-garde à la fin du XIXe siècle: Lautréamont et Mallarmé, Paris: Seuil (Tel quel), 1974, 646 pp; repr., Paris: Seuil (Points), 2018, 640 pp. Publisher.
  • Revolution in Poetic Language, trans. Margaret Waller, intro. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: Columbia University Press, 1984; repr., 2024, 304 pp. Abridged trans. Publisher. Review: Judith Butler (Hypatia). (English)

• Des Chinoises, Des Femmes, 1974; Pauvert, 2001.
  • About Chinese Women, trans. Anita Barrows, London: Boyars, 1977. (English)

• Polylogue, Paris: Seuil, 1977.

• Pouvoirs de l'horreur: essai sur l'abjection, Paris: Seuil (Tel quel), 1980; repr, Paris: Seuil (Points), 1983, 256 pp. Publisher.
  • Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982, x+219 pp; repr., 2024, 248 pp. Publisher. Reviews: Carol Mastrangelo Bové (Discourse), Kelly Oliver (Diacritics). WP. (English)

• Histoires d'amour, Paris: Denoël, 1983.
  • Tales of Love, trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: Columbia University Press, 1989, 414 pp; repr., 2024. Publisher. Review: Kelly Oliver (Diacritics). (English)

• Au commencement était l'amour. Psychanalyse et foi, Textes du xxe siècle, Hachette, 1985.
• Al Comienzo era el Amor: Psicoanálisis y Fe, trans. Graciela Klein, Buenos Aires: Gedisa, 1986; 2002, PDF. (Spanish)
  • In the Beginning Was Love: Psychoanalysis and Faith, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, intro. Otto F. Kernberg, New York: Columbia University Press, 1987. Review: Kelly Oliver (Diacritics). (English)

• Soleil noir. Dépression et mélancolie, Paris: Gallimard, 1987; 1994.
  • Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, New York: Columbia University Press, 1989; repr., 2024, 240 pp. Publisher. Review: Kelly Oliver (Diacritics). (English)

• Le Féminin et le Sacré (with Catherine Clément), Paris: Stock, 1988.
  • The Feminine and the Sacred, trans. Jane Marie Todd, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Review: Kwok Wei Leng (Signs). (English)

• Étrangers à nous-mêmes, Paris: Fayard, 1988.
  • Strangers to Ourselves, New York: Columbia University Press, 1991, 230 pp; repr., 2024, 232 pp. Publisher. Reviews: Kelly Oliver (Diacritics), Stephen Dobson (Acta Sociologica). (English)

• Language: The Unknown: An Initiation Into Linguistics, trans. Anne M. Menke, New York: Columbia University Press, 1989, 366 pp; repr., 2025, 408 pp. Publisher, [2]. (English)

• Nations Without Nationalism, trans. Leon S. Roudiez, New York: Columbia University Press, 1990; repr., 2025, 108 pp. [3] (English)

• The Samurai: A Novel, trans. Barbara Bray, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992, 341 pp; repr., 2025, 341 pp. Publisher, [4]. (English)

• Les Nouvelles Maladies de l'âme, Paris: Fayard, 1993.
  • New Maladies of the Soul, trans. Ross Guberman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995, 242 pp; repr., 2025, 256 pp. Publisher, [5]. Review: Donna Bassin (Int'l J Psychoanalysis). (English)

• Proust and the Sense of Time, trans. Stephen Bann, New York: Columbia University Press, 1993, xvi+103 pp; repr., 2025, 103 pp. Publisher, [6]. Review: Anthony Pugh (Int'l Fiction Rev). (English)

• The Old Man and the Wolves: A Novel, trans. Barbara Bray, New York: Columbia University Press, 1994, 183 pp; repr., 2025, 183 pp. Publisher, [7]. (English)

• Time and Sense: Proust and the Experience of Literature, trans. Ross Guberman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, xiv+407 pp; repr., 2025, 442 pp. Publissher, [8]. Review: Anthony Pugh (Int'l Fiction Rev). (English)

• Visions Capitales, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1998; Martinière, 2013.
  • The Severed Head: Capital Visions, trans. Jody Gladding, New York: Columbia University Press, 2011, 176 pp; repr., 2025, 176 pp. Publisher, [9]. Reviews: Kathryn Hughes (Guardian), Matthew R McLennan (J French and Francophone Phil). (English)

• Possessions: A Novel, trans. Barbara Bray, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, 256 pp. Publisher, [10]. (English)

• Hannah Arendt (Le Génie féminin, t. 1), Paris: Fayard, 1999; 2003.
  • Hannah Arendt, trans. Ross Guberman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, 320 pp. Publisher. (English)

• Melanie Klein (Le Génie féminin, t. 2), Paris: Gallimard, 2003.
  • Melanie Klein, trans. Ross Guberman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, 304 pp; repr., trans. Ross Guberman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Publisher. (English)
  • El Genio Femenino. La vida, la locura, las palabras, 2. Melanie Klein, trans. Jorge Piatigorsky, Buenos Aires: Paidos, 2001, 317 pp. (Spanish)

• Colette (Le Génie féminin, t. 3), Paris: Fayard, 2002.
  • Colette, trans. Jane Marie Todd, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 448 pp. Publisher. Review: Lynn Penrod (Women in French Studies). (English)

• Hannah Arendt: Life is a Narrative, trans. Frank Collins, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001; repr., 2020, 100 pp. Based on the series of Alexander Lectures she delivered at the University of Toronto. Review: April Flakne (Phil in Review). (English)

• The Sense and Non-sense of Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis, trans. Jeanine Herman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, 288 pp; repr., 2025, 320 pp. Publisher, [11]. (English)

• Revolt, She Said (with Philippe Petit), trans. Brian O’Keeffe, ed. Sylvère Lotringer, Semiotext(e), 2002. Interview. (English)

• Intimate Revolt: The Powers and Limits of Psychoanalysis, trans. Jeanine Herman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 392 pp; repr., 2025, 344 pp. Publisher, [12]. Review: Sebastian Skeaping (Cambridge Quarterly). (English)

• La Haine et le Pardon, Paris: Fayard, 2005.
  • Hatred and Forgiveness, trans. Jeanine Herman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010, 336 pp; repr., 2024, 412 pp. Publisher, [13]. (English)

• Meurtre à Byzance, Paris: LGF, 2006.
  • Murder in Byzantium: A Novel, trans. C. Jon Delogu, New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, 264 pp. Publisher. (English)

• This Incredible Need to Believe, trans. Beverley Bie Brahic, New York: Columbia University Press, 2009, 136 pp; repr., 2025, 136 pp. Publisher, [14]. Review: Elaine P. Zickler (Bryn Mawr). (English)

• Teresa, My Love: An Imagined Life of the Saint of Avila, New York: Columbia University Press, 2014, 648 pp. Publisher, [15]. Review: Carlene Bauer (NY Times). (English)

• Marriage as a Fine Art (with Philippe Sollers), New York: Columbia University Press, 2016, 128 pp. Publisher. (English)

• The Enchanted Clock: A Novel, trans. Armine Kotin Mortimer, New York: Columbia University Press, 2018, 336 pp. Publisher. (English)

• Passions of Our Time, ed. & forew. Lawrence Kritzman, New York: Columbia University Press, 2019, 424 pp; repr., 2024. Publisher, [16]. (English)

• Dostoyevsky in the Face of Death, or Language Haunted by Sex, trans. Armine Kotin Mortimer, forew. Rowan Williams, New York: Columbia University Press, 2021, 344 pp; repr., 2023. Publisher, [17]. (English)

Selected works

• The Kristeva Reader, ed. Toril Moi, New York: Columbia University Press, 1986, 328 pp. Publisher. (English)

• Julia Kristeva Interviews, ed. Ross Mitchell Guberman, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Publisher.

• The Portable Kristeva, ed. Kelly Oliver, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 464 pp; 2nd ed., 2002, 512 pp. Publisher. Review: Kwok Wei Leng (Signs). (English)

• Slovo, dialog a román. Texty o sémiotice, trans. Josef Fulka, Prague: Sofis & Pastelka, 1999, 81 pp, PDF, PDF. (Czech)

• Crisis of the European Subject, New York: Other Press, 2000, 183 pp. Collection of four essays. Review: Louiza Odysseos (Millennium). (English)

Literature

• Ann Rosalind Jones, "Julia Kristeva on Femininity: The Limits of a Semiotic Politics", Feminist Review 18:1, 1984, pp 56-73. DOI. (English)

• Clare Cavanagh, "Pseudo-Revolution in Poetic Language: Julia Kristeva and the Russian Avant-Garde", Slavic Review 52:2 (Summer 1993), pp 283-297. (English)

• Noelle McAfee, Julia Kristeva, New York and London: Routledge, 2004. (English)

• Tina Chanter, Ewa Plonowska Ziarek (eds.), Revolt, Affect, Collectivity. The Unstable Boundaries of Kristeva's Polis, SUNY Press, 2005. (English)

• Birgit Schippers, Julia Kristeva and Feminist Thought, 2011. Review: Maria Margaroni (J Gender Studies). (English)

• Alice Jardine, At the Risk of Thinking: An Intellectual Biography of Julia Kristeva, Bloomsbury, 2020. Reviews: Jenny Turner (Guardian), Michael Wood (London Review of Books), John Lechte (Thesis Eleven). (English)

Links

• Wikipedia