The philosophical foundations of Kristeva's thought

• Main Author: Beardsworth, Sara
• Published: University of Warwick 1993
• Subjects: 100; B Philosophy (General) : K Law (General)
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.388357

The critical reception of Kristeva's writings has largely been in the field of feminist thought, literary studies and social theory. Her thought has been appreciated or abandoned on the grounds of its argument that the concepts and practices of 'psychoanalysis' and 'literature' present the truth of modern social and political relations - in distinction from and criticism of philosophical 'system' . The thesis implicitly challenges this general reception of I<risteva's thought. It presents a systematic reading of Kristeva's writings and discloses the Hegelian ambition of her analysis of the 'subject' in social and political relations. The main object of the thesis is to establish the philosophical foundations of Kristeva's 'return to Freud' in the philosophy of law from Kant to Hegel. The thesis presents the significance and limitation of her engagement with German idealism, and the consequences of that limited engagement for the ambition of Kristeva's oeuvre. The meaning of the speculative philosophy of law is recovered from its premature reduction in the developments of, and departures from, her thought in contemporary critical engagements with French and German philosophy.