Julia Kristeva is one of Europe's most brilliant and original theorists, widely acclaimed for her work in such diverse areas as linguistics, psychoanalysis, literary and political theory. The Kristeva Reader is a fully-comprehensive, easily accessible introduction to her work in English, containing a wide range of essays from all phases of Kristeva's career. The essays have been carefully selected as representative of the three main areas of her writing - semiotics, psychoanalysis and political theory - and each is prefaced by a clear, instructive introduction.

Toril Moi is Professor of Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature at Bergen University

Preface vi

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

I Linguistics, Semiotics, Textuality 23

1 The System and the Speaking Subject 24

2 Word, Dialogue and Novel 34

3 From Symbol to Sign 62

4 Semiotics: A Critical Science and/or a Critique of Science 74

5 Revolution in Poetic Language 89

II Women, Psychoanalysis. Politics 137

6 About Chinese Women 138

7 Stabat Mater 160

8 Women's Time 187

9 The True-Real 214

10 Freud and Love: Treatment and Its Discontents 238

11 Why the United States? 272

12 A New Type of Intellectual: The Dissident 292

13 Psychoanalysis and the Polis 301

Index 321