Resurrecting Erotic Transgression: Subjecting Ambiguity in Theology Book

Resurrecting Erotic Transgression presents a feminist theological methodology based in the poststructuralism of Julia Kristeva (b. 1941). This methodology provides the means for "subjecting ambiguity" or bringing into human communication (including theology) a recognition of the multiplicity of language and identity. Such recognition arises from sustained attention to the "otherness" or alterity of language and subjectivity. This attention produces an ambivalent enjoyment (jouissance) of the shattering of the idea of identity as unitary and singular, and an overturning of the effect of extant dualities in language and identity. A method of "poetic reading" is proposed with a three stage process: articulation of the dualities present in and around a focal discourse; subversion of these dualities through a range of strategies; and the re-presentation of the discourse emphasising its ambiguous nature. Kristeva's account of "poetic language" identifies a form of writing that precipitates jouissance. The concept of "poetic language" is appropriated for the claim that jouissance might also be the outcome of the reproduction or interpretation of discourse (i.e. reading), as well as of discursive production itself. The hermeneutical method of "poetic reading" is explored in relation to three biblical texts and an image of the "otherness" of God as Whore.