Revolution in Poetic Language

Introduction

La Révolution du langage poétique was Kristeva’s doctorat d’État, published in 1974; the English translation (1984) contains only the first, theoretical part of a far longer work. Drawing on Freud, Lacan and Hegel, she distinguishes two dimensions of meaning. The symbolic is the order of grammar, logic and stable reference; the semiotic consists of rhythmic, bodily drives rooted in the infant’s earliest bond with the mother, before language. She locates these drives in the chora, a term borrowed from Plato’s Timaeus. In the avant-garde poetry of Mallarmé and Lautréamont the semiotic breaks through the symbolic, and Kristeva links this disruption of language to social upheaval.

Connections

Builds on

• Écrits1966 · Jacques Lacan

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