In this volume, based on the series of Alexander Lectures she delivered at the University of Toronto, Julia Kristeva explores the philosophical aspects of Hannah Arendt's work: her understanding of such concepts as language, self, body, political space, and life. Kristeva's aim is to clarify contradictions in Arendt's thought as well as correct misapprehensions about her political and philosophical views.

The first two chapters describe how Arendt followed an original conception of human narrative, such that life, action, and even thought, are only human when they can be narrated and...

Historically there has been a wide gulf between European and Anglo/American thought on the philosophy of language, in part because it is often difficult to find important European works in English translation. Meaning and Textuality represents key elements of the ground-breaking new theory on signs and discourse that has come out of Europe in the last few decades.

Meaning and Textuality is an investigation into methods useful to the analysis of language and literature. Rastier seeks ways to better understand signs, with emphasis on their relation to action and...

First published in France in 1976, Anne Ubersfeld's three-volume work, Lire le theatre, has made a resounding impact on the semiological study of drama. Reading Theatre is a long-awaited translation of the first volume.

Clear and systematic in its approach, the book covers all the basic elements of theatrical text and performance. Ubersfeld begins by refuting the view of performance as the simple 'translation' of a dramatic text, and outlines a much more complex dynamic. In subsequent chapters she similarly begins with a brief critique of simplistic models and then teases out the...