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Rating: 
Summary: Tough going
Review: Julia Kristeva is one of the most rigorous academics of the 20th Century, and if you haven't already read extensively in philosophy, psychology, late 19th-century literature, and linguistics, this book will prove very difficult.The introduction is fascinating, and provides an excellent overview of Kristeva's thought. It also includes useful information on some of Kristeva's contemporaries and influences. However, diving into the primary source readings is no easy task. The reader is immediately bombarded by obscure references to Freud, German words appropriated from Hegel and (unexplained) applied to semiotics and linguistics in complicated ways, and references to classical and late-19th-century literature that assume a great deal of prior knowledge on the part of the reader. For those of you who have never heard of, for example, Mallarme, have never read Hegel, and are relatively new to psychology, there are a few interesting things for you. As I said, the introduction is excellent. Also, Kristeva's discussion of love and depression is beautifully written and BRILLIANT - you'll find that her writing stirs your most private memories and emotions in ways that no other writer can. But you'll also find that 70% of the book is frustratingly incomprehensible. Kristeva is sometimes easy to read, and sometimes impossible. It depends on the passage. For those of you who do have substantial prior knowledge, this reader provides an extraordinary selection of Kristeva's work, and it's a great way to gain a broad (and often relatively deep) knowledge of the whole range of Kristeva's work.
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