Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII. A renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist, she has written dozens of books spanning semiotics, political theory, literary criticism, gender and sex, and cultural critique, as well as several novels and autobiographical works, published in English translation by Columbia University Press. Kristeva was the inaugural recipient of the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004 “for innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture, and literature.”Armine Kotin Mortimer is professor emerita of French literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the translator of Julia Kristeva’s novel The Enchanted Clock (Columbia, 2018) and the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship.

• PrefacePart I: The Flood of Language1. The Condemned Man, the Sacred Malady, and the Sun2. Dostoyevsky, “Author of My Life”3. In the Steps of the Liberated Convict4. Beyond Neurosis5. The God-Man, the Man-God6. The Purloined Letter7. Everything Is PermittedPart II: A Carnivalesque Theologian8. The Russian Virus9. Christocentrism10. The Pleasures of Evil and Misfortune11. The National Christ12. Catholicism, Atheism, Nihilism13. The Nihilist Seeking God14. Laughter, Spokesperson for the Obscene15. “The Novel Is a Poem”NotesBibliographyIndex

Poetic, stunning, fascinating, and deeply insightful, Kristeva’s readings of Dostoyevsky are as much about us and our time as they are about him and his works. This book is a celebration of literature and language as an antidote to the extremes of nihilism and fundamentalism that still threaten us today.

Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII. A renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist, she has written dozens of books spanning semiotics, political theory, literary criticism, gender and sex, and cultural critique, as well as several novels and autobiographical works, published in English translation by Columbia University Press. Kristeva was the inaugural recipient of the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004 “for innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture, and literature.”Armine Kotin Mortimer is professor emerita of French literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the translator of Julia Kristeva’s novel The Enchanted Clock (Columbia, 2018) and the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship.

• PrefacePart I: The Flood of Language1. The Condemned Man, the Sacred Malady, and the Sun2. Dostoyevsky, “Author of My Life”3. In the Steps of the Liberated Convict4. Beyond Neurosis5. The God-Man, the Man-God6. The Purloined Letter7. Everything Is PermittedPart II: A Carnivalesque Theologian8. The Russian Virus9. Christocentrism10. The Pleasures of Evil and Misfortune11. The National Christ12. Catholicism, Atheism, Nihilism13. The Nihilist Seeking God14. Laughter, Spokesperson for the Obscene15. “The Novel Is a Poem”NotesBibliographyIndex

Poetic, stunning, fascinating, and deeply insightful, Kristeva’s readings of Dostoyevsky are as much about us and our time as they are about him and his works. This book is a celebration of literature and language as an antidote to the extremes of nihilism and fundamentalism that still threaten us today.

Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII. A renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist, she has written dozens of books spanning semiotics, political theory, literary criticism, gender and sex, and cultural critique, as well as several novels and autobiographical works, published in English translation by Columbia University Press. Kristeva was the inaugural recipient of the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004 “for innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture, and literature.”Armine Kotin Mortimer is professor emerita of French literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the translator of Julia Kristeva’s novel The Enchanted Clock (Columbia, 2018) and the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship.

• PrefacePart I: The Flood of Language1. The Condemned Man, the Sacred Malady, and the Sun2. Dostoyevsky, “Author of My Life”3. In the Steps of the Liberated Convict4. Beyond Neurosis5. The God-Man, the Man-God6. The Purloined Letter7. Everything Is PermittedPart II: A Carnivalesque Theologian8. The Russian Virus9. Christocentrism10. The Pleasures of Evil and Misfortune11. The National Christ12. Catholicism, Atheism, Nihilism13. The Nihilist Seeking God14. Laughter, Spokesperson for the Obscene15. “The Novel Is a Poem”NotesBibliographyIndex

Poetic, stunning, fascinating, and deeply insightful, Kristeva’s readings of Dostoyevsky are as much about us and our time as they are about him and his works. This book is a celebration of literature and language as an antidote to the extremes of nihilism and fundamentalism that still threaten us today.