This innovative introductory text not only clearly explains Kristeva's most difficult ideas, but also provides new insights into her work. All Kristeva's key concepts are clearly explained, and new interpretations are offered of the "chora," "Oedipus" and "abjection," as well as "revolt" and the "feminine genius." Kristeva's intellectual development is set in historical and political context and the creative power of her work is also highlighted. Finally, the original interview reveals Kristeva's true intellectual and political aspirations.

Textual Layering: Contact, Historicity, Critique sets out to rethink our relation to textual tradition against the background of several contemporary developments, including the emergence of digital culture, the increasing spectacularization of psychic as well as social life, the renegotiation of historical thinking, and the precarious position of the theoretical humanities within academia. To this end, the volume re-invests the concept of "layering," a concept currently used in a wide range of fields, including metaphor studies and linguistics, cybernetics, the social sciences, art, and...