On Kristeva's Revolution and Revolt: Dissolved Politics and Agential Imagination

Abstract

Julia Kristeva uses two disparate concepts in her work: revolution andrevolt. In this article I understand these concepts as different approaches to therelations between power, art and psychoanalysis. By placing the concepts of revoltand revolution in dialogue with each other, and by pointing out that their dialoguedeparts from the notion of experience, I attempt to reconstruct the importantcontribution of Kristeva's work. Her perspective reveals that artistic expression islinked to a specific kind of politics (dissolved politics). Kristeva's view of literaryand psychoanalytic practice is then, arguably, something that may contribute tothe realisation of this dissolved politics, albeit in a limited way.