Passions of Our Time

Linguist, psychoanalyst, and novelist Kristeva (The Severed Head) has produced a heavy-going collection of scholarly essays, written in dense poststructuralist academese. Its topics include “maternal eroticism,” disability, secularism and religion, diversity and cultural relativism, and the death penalty. Kristeva also explores the influence of Simone de Beauvoir, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, St. Teresa of Avila, and Syrian psychoanalyst Rafah Nached. Kristeva’s ideas can be intriguing, but her delivery tends toward the tedious and convoluted. A representative sample: “Maternal reliance as a detotalized universe made up of heterogeneous strategies cannot be fixed in any type of monolithic representation, much less worshipped as a goddess.” She is most successful avoiding the abstract and grounding her discussions in current events, as when asserting that “while the cult of identity (national or sexual) engenders new militancies, the European space runs against this trend, since in Europe ‘national identity’ is no longer a cult but is now a constantly evolving reality to question.” This collection will appeal to Kristeva’s dedicated readers, but is unlikely to provide an entry point to those new to her work. [em](Aug.) [/em]