Kristeva, Julia, 1941-, French critic, psychoanalyst, semiotician, and writer, b. Sliven, Bulgaria. Writing in French, she has explored many subjects including structuralist linguistics and semiotics, psychoanalysis, and contemporary feminism; many of her books have been translated into English. She studied at the Univ. of Sofia and settled (1966) in Paris, where she received (1973) a doctorate in linguistics from the School of Higher Education in Social Sciences. Kristeva, who became a psychoanalyst at 40, is also a professor of linguistics at the Univ. of Paris. In general, she takes a poststructuralist approach, analyzing the relationships among language, society, and self with its individual psychology and sexuality. Her books include Semeiotiké (1969), Revolution in Poetic Language (1974, tr. 1984), Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia (1987, tr. 1992), Time and Sense: Proust and the Experience of Literature (1994, tr. 1996), and The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt (1996, tr. 2000). The subjects of her early 21st-century trilogy on "female genius" are Hannah Arendt (tr. 2001), Melanie Klein (tr. 2002), and Colette (in an as yet uncompleted work). She has also written two novels.

(born June 24, 1941, Sliven, Bulg.) Bulgarian-born French psychoanalyst, critic, and educator. Professor of linguistics at the University of Paris VII, she is known for her writings in structuralist linguistics (see structuralism), psychoanalysis, semiotics, and feminism. She was a protégé of Roland Barthes, and she synthesized elements from such thinkers as Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, and Mikhail Bakhtin in creating her own theories. Her novels include The Samurai (1990) and The Old Man and the Wolves (1991).

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