ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Julia Kristeva, a feminist thinker. In Powers of Horror, Kristeva introduced the idea of the abject: that which is neither subject nor object; which "draws me toward the place where meaning collapses"; and which "disturbs identity, system, order". Kristeva's discussion of abjection is her contribution to one of the most important debates of psychoanalytic theory, namely how a subject an "I" comes into being as someone distinct from others. Her theory of the subject is premised on the idea that "the subject is an effect of linguistic processes". Her philosophy of language, and her theory of subjectivity, offer a challenge to a philosophical discourse that by and large has ignored, indeed repressed, anything that threatens (patriarchal) order. Much of Kristeva's work since her arrival in France has been a critical response to the call for homogeneity that so characterized the world in which she had grown up. Her work celebrates pluralism, singularity, and difference.
