Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art

Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art, ed. Leon Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980. 305 pp.

Desire in Language is a collection of articles originally published in French in different reviews (Critique, Tel Quel, etc.), and reprinted, in French, in two books, each of which is a collection of several articles (Kristeva, 1969, 1977). It begins with a clear introduction by Léon Roudiez, including a few very helpful notes on translation and terminology.

Semiotics, which can be defined not only as the science of signs (p. 3) but also as the theoretical and empirical study of signs and sign systems and their epistemological, biological or sociological foundations, provides Julia Kristeva with a very useful tool when she analyzes literature and art and their multiple dimensions. Taking Marxism (but never intending to follow a correct Marxist line or any other line whatsoever) (p. 1), linguistics and psychoanalysis, as points of departure, she develops her theory which...