French Feminist Theory Exemplified Through the Novels of Julia Kristeva: The Bridge from Psychoanalytic Theory to Literary Production Book

This is the first study to examine Julia Kristeva's novels in the context of the relationship between French feminist and post-colonial theory, and Anglo-American Feminism.Internationally known as a practicing psychoanalyst, literary theoretician and critic, the French feminist Julia Kristeva has recently shifted her interest from theory to the novel, albeit noting that the boundary between theory and novel is indeterminate for her. Part one examines the implications of how Kristeva's problematic status as a French feminist can be situated in relation to post-colonial (feminist) theorists and critics. Part two continues with an introduction to Kristeva's relationship with two other French feminist theorists, Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray. This work demonstrates that the understanding of French feminist theory among the Anglophone feminist reading public obscures the theoretical positions of feminist thought in France, and seeks to destabilize the underlying assumption that French feminist theory is apolitical while Anglo-American feminism is political.