Introduction

This volume begins with a new essay by Julia Kristeva, ‘The Adolescent Novel’, in which she examines the relation between novelistic writing and the experience of adolescence as an open structure. It is this blend of the literary with the psychoanalytic that places Kristeva’s work central to current thinking, from semiotics and critical theory to feminism and psychoanalysis.

The essays in this volume offer insight into the workings of Kristeva’s thought, ranging from her analyses of sexual difference, female temporality and the perceptions of the body to the mental states of abjection and melancholia, and their representation in painting and literature.

Kristeva’s persistent humanity, her profound understanding of the dynamics of intention and creativity, mark her out as one of the leading theoreticians of desire. Each essay offers the reader a new insight into the many aspects that make up Kristeva’s entire oeuvre.