ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by examining Julia Kristeva’s interpretation of Teresa’s mystical writing as an expression of inner otherness and successful self-analysis. It looks at Kristeva’s political engagement with Saint Teresa and the conclusions for contemporary politics that the critic draws from it with regard to her own critical notions of self and identity. The chapter considers the particular form of double life writing that Kristeva’s study on Teresa ultimately represents. Sylvia Leclerq thus embodies Kristeva’s theoretical engagement and ideological convictions. Her political ideas become very clear when she debates with her academic friends and when she addresses Teresa throughout the book. Kristeva’s account of Saint Teresa’s life and personality comprises about 700 pages. It is far more than a biography or a literary analysis of Teresa’s texts. Kristeva touches upon questions of desire, writing, gender, and alterity, among others, relating all these topics in Teresa of Ávila to contemporary politics of religion, identity, and subjectivity.
