From Symbol to Culture: Julia Kristeva’s Fascination with the Chinese Language

Abstract

Kristeva has a close relationship with China. Not only has she obtained a degree in Chinese and been active in the “China Period” of Tel Quel, but she has also focused on the Chinese language, thought, and culture in both her academic research and her literary work. Kristeva’s early concern with Chinese primarily revolved around linguistics and semiotics. Influenced by the Chinese language, she proposed theories such as “logique poétique” and “le paragramme semiology.” After the 1970s, Kristeva began to introduce psychoanalytic and feminist perspectives into her research, focusing on understanding the Chinese language from the standpoint of Chinese thought, culture, and historical traditions and considering Chinese as a “tonal language.” Since the 1990s and especially in the 21st century, Kristeva further explored the potential for dialogue between Chinese and European cultures within the context of their “encounter.” Thus, Kristeva’s fascination with the Chinese language has become a prominent case of Western practice in the mutual learning between Chinese and Western literary theories.

Keywords:

• Julia Kristeva
• the Chinese language
• logique poétique
• semiotics
• Chinese culture
• China-Europe cultural dialogue

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This article is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China “Research on the Discourse Construction of Dialogism Literary Theory on Contemporary China” (22AZW003), and the major humanities and social sciences project of the scientific research innovation plan of the Shanghai municipal education commission “Research on Basic Issues of New Media Art Theory” (2023SKZD15).

Notes on contributors

Jun Zeng

Jun Zeng is a professor of the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University. His research interests lie in literary and critical theory, cultural studies, and media studies.

Yuxuan Huang

Yuxuan Huang is a Ph.D. candidate at the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University.