Julia Kristeva: Exile and Geopolitics of the Balkans Author(s): Duan I. Bjeli Source: Slavic Review, Vol.

67, No. 2 (Summer, 2008), pp. 364-383 Published by: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27652848 . Accessed: 10/09/2011 08:59
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Julia Kristeva:
Dusan I. Bjelic

Exile

and Geopolitics

of the Balkans

If you want me

to interpret,

you are bound

in my desire. Kristeva, The Kristeva Reader

?Julia

west In recent years, the field of exile studies has profoundly influenced ern academic to the development of foundational discourse, becoming a the areas of postcolonial and cultural studies. Taking ap psychoanalytic to the question of exile, Julia Kristeva, in Strangers to Ourselves and proach a distinctive to the field, other works, has made and her contribution as seminal to it.1 The purpose is is widely of this article work recognized to examine to her native country, Bulgaria, and the how her relationship as a Balkans her work on exile, with the specific aim region has informed some aspects of her construction of questioning of her own exilic identity of the Balkans. and her psychoanalysis A prominent in exile, bearing thesis in Kristeva's work is that being the is not only closely of the lost maternal tied to the burden space, psychic of Oedipal "exile is al but is also a site of dissent: process development a form of dissidence, from oneself since it involves uprooting ready in itself a a country, or of dissidence She extends this concept family, language."2 to the idea of "Oedipal Edward revolt" against the maternal space. While affirm their respective scholars Said, Stuart Hall, Edward Soja, and other to the of the impe maternal and peripheral spaces as colonial hegemony center and call for cultural hybridity, Kristeva Oedi advocates rial cultural and from the native space as if from the "archaic mother" pal separation on behalf of French She identity rejects her Bulgarian cosmopolitanism. as the revolt of the center reformulates "resistance" the periphery against as the in particular) father and agent and views the west (France symbolic source of unconscious of civilizing "rescue" from the Balkans, Europe's a to Bulgarian is "undergo citizens and violence.3 Her message carnage or to join European in order civilization psychoanalysis psychotherapy"

on this paper. to Rosemary thanks Miller for her help Many Epigraph ed. Toril Moi 311. The Kristeva Reader, Kristeva, (New York, 1986), trans. Leon to Ourselves, 1. Julia Kristeva, S. Roudiez (New Strangers see Bonnie nature of Kristeva's the seminal and work, Honig, Democracy Uses of the Other: "The East" in European Iver B. Neumann, ceton, 2001); 1999). (Minneapolis, in Danielle The Cultural Politics 2. Kristeva, Marx-Scouras, of quoted

taken

from

Julia

For York, 1994). the Foreigner (Prin Identity Formation Tel Quel: Literature

and theLeft in the Wake ofEngagement (Philadelphia,

3. Kristeva be structured "Dialogue

1996), 195.

teva,

as Lacan "This is because, said the unconscious asserts, may perhaps just as a like a language, I think that it is above all structured carnage." Julia Kris in the original. Parallax with Julia Kristeva," 6. Emphasis 4, no. 3 (1998):

Slavic

Review

67', no.

(Summer

2008)

Julia

Kristeva:

Exile

and Geopolitics

of theBalkans

365

In short, Kristeva the "point of view of the dominat accepts successfully.4 cure for the Balkans.5 other" as the civilizational ing In Kristeva's one can an exile? register, psychoanalytic only become as and identify oneself of displacement from the maternal way such?by on the Balkans her discourse and on the state of exile space. Therefore, its strong autobiographical cannot be disassociated itself, with overtones, from her Balkan In fact, I argue, by way of psychoanalytic me origins. her construction on an indi of her own exilic diation, identity replicates vidual level the continuous construction of the Balkans cycle of Europe's as the of its own self-invention. In calling for the component reciprocal Balkans' revolt against "the Mother" and the affirmation of the Oedipal that is, the Law, the Father, she reveals the true discursive order, symbolic locus of her work, and her self-identity, in the geopolitics of Europe. As historian Wolff has demonstrated, the European since Vol Larry space taire has been as the masculine in its political unconscious west, signified the space of reason and representation, and the feminine east, the space that lacks both.6 a familiar is that Kristeva arsenal of geopolitical ste My point deploys to construct the psychological from the Balkans that is cen reotypes split tral to her project of Oedipal revolt and unquestioningly the geo accepts in the discursive of east/west political split deeply ingrained geography the European Grossraum.1 When mater she, as a psychoanalyst, registers nal space as the unconscious, which "is above all structured as a carnage,'" she incorporates into the structure of her Oedipal self not only Sigmund as a Freud's view of the Balkans but also the logic of regressed population, European geopolitics.8 in her articulation of her exilic Kristeva, identity and of the state of "ex ile" in general, relies solely on constructions and ignores psychoanalytic on Balkan the important academic discourse that has emerged identity the last two decades.9 Yet some of her critics have relied upon that during
4. Julia Kristeva, Crisis of the European Subject, trans. Susan Fairfield (New York,

2000),
I. Bjelic

182.
"The Balkans Mocnik, and Obrad Savic, eds., Balkan Mass., Wolff, 2002), Inventing 1994). 95. Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on theMind of the En as an Element as Metaphor: in in Dusan Mechanisms," Ideological Between Globalization and Fragmentation,

5. Rastko

(Cambridge, 6. Larry lightenment 7. See

Uses the Other. of 8. A harbinger of balkanismwas to Trieste Freud's letter Edoardo Weiss psychoanalyst Weiss's Slovene who was not to Freud (28 May 1992) regarding patient responsive therapy. art when "our analytical our faced such people, with cannot alone writes, perspicacity to the break relation which controls in them." Quoted Zizek, For through dynamic Slavoj as a Political Factor 8. Thus, Freud (London, 1996), They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment asserted the essence of the Balkans' them unreachable subjectivity precisely by declaring the particular of psychoanalysis. through mythology 9. Maria the Balkans In Todorova, (New York, 1997); Vesna Imagining Goldsworthy, The Imperialism ;Stathis Gourgouris, (New Haven, 1998) venting Ruritania: of the Imagination Dream Nation: Colonization and the Institution Modern Greece (Stanford, ; 1996) Enlightenment, of Milica Orientalisms: The Case of Former Slavic Re Bakic-Hayden, "Nesting Yugoslavia," no. 4 (Winter 917-31. view54, 1995):

(Stanford, also Neumann,

366

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iden on the of Balkan and liminality focuses which discourse, ambiguity for example, in their analysis of her work. Elka Agoston-Nikolova, tity, of being both in and out of the that Kristeva's argues position paradoxical attributes multicultural identity. Nikolova Balkans/Europe epitomizes of Bul to the "geopolitical with exile Kristeva's position preoccupation from on the cross-roads she argues, of the Balkans."10 And, coming garia to "dis one open as does Kristeva, makes of the Balkans, the "crossroads" in an advantageous and puts one and marginality" symbolic placement uses the "cross herself in today's globalized world. Yet Kristeva position from the center. For her, the crossroads, the Balkans roads" to dominate of of werewolves, the mythical haunt advantage signify, not the symbolic "I am a monster but presymbolic "monstrous the displaced, intimacy": out that scholar Elena Gueorguieva of the crossroads."11 points Bulgarian "Santa The Old Man and the Wolves, in Kristeva's novel, autobiographical It is of Bulgaria. is a fictional the novel's Barbara," representation setting, in murder a place where have become "wolflike," deeply steeped people to depres remains the only counterweight and crime, where "aggression as a metaphor for the the werewolf invokes sion."12 But Giorgio Agamben state the sovereign's of homo sacer reduced ancient Roman by legal concept of subjectivity to "bare life."13 So completely of exception by the stripped "bare life" lives in perpetual that itmay not even be sacrificed, sovereign the the law yet bound outside banishment, by it. In short, for Kristeva, but as two subjects, two equal do not meet and France Balkans codes, "The abject has only one rather as French abject: subject and Bulgarian of to 7."14 her project Within of being opposed of the object?that quality as European archaic drive against France she pits Bulgaria revolt, Oedipal
10. Cultures)," gress Elka Agoston-Nikolova, inWillem G. Weststeijn, (Amsterdam, 3; Kristeva, "The World ed., Dutch 10. Is Vast Exile Writers between (Bulgarian to the Twelfth International Contributions Two Con

1999), 167. Crisis of the European Subject, de Julia dans l'oeuvre de la Bulgarie romanesque "Images Gueorguieva, trans have been here 215. Etudes 2, no. 3 (2001): Kristeva," (Excerpts quoted balkaniques us in reminding is useful the French lated from Miller.) essay Gueorguieva's by Rosemary since "it is only 1992 in France in 1969, Kristeva's work was first published that, although . . . Since saw the the fall of the Berlin into Bulgarian that a first translation wall, light. have of her works of translations from extracts and the appearance with Kristeva interviews translated books have been in the Bulgarian lately into Bulgarian, press. Other multiplied on as well as an and Possessions, the Wolves and The Old Man psycho early work notably . . .Before of Bulgar and Melancholy. Black Sun: Depression that, only an elite group analysis, to these works. had access knew ian intellectuals, those who Presently, languages, foreign not of origin, of her country to readers is being revealed Kristeva the translations, through and novelist" as a scholar but also as a psychoanalyst of language, (215). Gueorguieva only to in Kristeva's novels out that references also points blended, juxta "disguised, Bulgaria in some cases, be the names of places" to other elements of this world, (221), may, posed to readers. only Bulgarian recognizable of the figure these words, the first to approximate 13. "Rodolphe was, with Jhering the 'man without and of the Friedlos, the wolf-man, homo sacer to that of the wargas, peace' Homo law." Giorgio Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, trans. of ancient Germanic Agamben, 104. Daniel Heller-Roazen 1998), (Stanford, ofSlavists 11. Ibid., 12. Elena York, 14. Julia 1982), Kristeva, 1. Powers ofHorror: An Essay on Abjection, trans. Leon S. Roudiez (New

Julia as

Kristeva:

Exile

and Geopolitics

of the Balkans

367

and as a result she sacrifices symbolic Europe's psychological heteroge to the simplified structure In other of geopolitical differentiation. neity in the language of European of "archaic the meaning words, geopolitics, is quite different mother" ossified than it is in a theory of poet and more the latter invents new usages of language, the former invokes ics; while a French established To become Kristeva had first to stereotypes. subject, to her own theory of abjec her Bulgarian demonize according identity I abject myselfWithm tion: "I expel myself, I spit myselfbut, the same motion From exile, she writes with which T claim to establish through myself"15 as the from "love" to Bulgaria "You suffer from chaos, abject: geopolitical from violence. You suffer You suffer from the lack of authority. vandalism, of initiative, from corruption, the absence the sloppiness that redoubles an on the individual of the level, the arrogance brutality unprecedented mafia and the scams of the newly rich."16 weaves and exilic Kristeva her personal identity history discursively in interesting, into this geopolitical ways. She left provocative complex a scholar at age of 24, she received her native Bulgaria in 1965 when, that enabled her to pursue government ship from the French graduate as Roland in Paris. There studies scholars she studied with such eminent and Emil Benveniste, Claude others. As a Barthes, Levi-Strauss, among of fiction, she has gained and even a writer semiologist, psychoanalyst, over the years renown. Among she has received accolades world the many alma mater, Causa degree from her Bulgarian the Uni is a Doctor Honoris In many this event, which took place in May of Sofia. respects, versity exilic identity, not of her career and her self-assigned 2002, is emblematic a triumphal return to her native itmarked but also Bulgaria, only because of her her acceptance touches the main themes because upon speech for the education work in she received and, while expressing gratitude to France her allegiance and her love acknowledges Bulgaria, specifically "I love the logical for the French culture and language.17 and admiration of the vocabulary, the niceness the impeccable precision clarity of French, ... I have transferred so of judgment. into this other language completely for fifty years already that I have and written that I am almost spoken to believe take me for a French and the Americans who intellectual ready must have been love of the French writer."18 Her language immediately to her largely Bulgarian because the speech was deliv evident audience, at the end. in Bulgarian ered in French, with a token passage at University of Sofia was written That Kristeva's acceptance speech
in the original. Ibid., 3. Emphasis 16. Kristeva, 176. Crisis of the European Subject, at University les femmes" 17. Julia Kristeva, "La Langue, la nation, (speech presented in this article translated from the French have been of Sofia, 2002). by (Excerpts quoted Kristeva the Doctor Dimitar received who was present when Kambourov, Miller.) Rosemary a copy of her sent me in the origi and heard her Honoris Causa speech degree speak, 15. nal French. intellectual French letter Kristeva's "I would who know details say that people reports, concerning in not be that surprised would itinerary by the fact that she gave her speech ... to what she did then." Kambourov, in fact, there was widespread opposition to author, 19 March 2007. Quoted by permission. He Ibid., 12-13.

18.

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the forty (or so) not surprising, is perhaps in French and delivered given .Yet since she effectively that had elapsed using Bulgarian years stopped with regard for all things French has deeper her predilection implications on superiority is based to her personalized which civilizational model, a as on she regards and in which than rather playing language diversity the Bulgarian she discusses is particularly evident when role. This crucial In this essay Kristeva souffrance."19 in the essay "Bulgarie, ma language the fall of the a rare visit to her homeland in 1989, just before describes French President she accompanied Berlin Wall, when Fran?ois Mitterand as an to Bulgaria on an official she returns In psychoanalytic visit. terms, in the as her symbolic father. And, with Mitterand Oedipus emancipated to are of her theory of language produce put into play essay, all elements an of a divided for the psychopolitical Gazing Europe. necessity apology and internally with her French eye, she finds three particularly disturbing and in Bulgaria?dirty irritants related streets, a dirty national language, are streets and the polluted The polluted Orthodox language Christianity. iden national and the lack of a genuine of social disorder symptomatic are directly in her judgment, caused, by the failed Oedipal tity, and these theolo and Orthodox unconscious structure Christian of the Orthodox of the Orthodox Oedipus. gy's feminization of aesthetics the postcommunist laments As for the streets, Kristeva and flies" in the and "the garbage the black markets, the public sphere, she laments the "lapses of taste" revealed streets of Sofia. Even more, by of the national the sorry condition began Bulgarians language. When William Fedor Dostoevskii, William Faulkner, Shakespeare, translating and Michel Roland Nathalie Samuel Beckett, Foucault, Barthes, Sarraute, "that there Kristeva even a bit of Kristeva, "It became out, clear," points of into this poor and so they stuffed were not enough words, language arsenal of tasteless and root and na?ve thinkers a whole sensitive peasants an il consumer For her, vandalism, less loanwords."20 aesthetics, trashy and cultural plagiarism?common corruption, political legal economy, and pre all signs of barbarism societies?are features of postcommunist taste. She divides and national kind of social grace, politeness, empt any of the that have an aesthetic like France, into those, nations European like Bulgaria, that do not. and those, sphere public the clear sign of the subject's Kristeva elevates cleanliness, Oedipal from the mother, law and the separation of the father's internalization of a civic for the formation to a political and geoaesthetic precondition shared taste. For her, "na and collectively distinct nation characterized by it is a psychoaesthetic tion" is not just a political institution, aggregate life all stem and social in which like the Greek identity, politics, polis, on the aesthetics from a collective Building hygienic. Oedipal predicated "veritable Arendt's of subjectivity her psychoanalytic upon Hannah theory is a political that a nation theorizes Kristeva of narration," object politics
19. Julia Kristeva, as "Bulgaria, Crisis 20. Kristeva, "Bulgarie, My ma souffrance," LInfini Crisis of the European 171. Subject, (Autumn 163-83. Subject, 51 1995): 42-52.

Translated

Suffering," of the European

Julia Kristeva:

Exile

and Geopolitics

of the Balkans

369

an aesthetic its that it achieves of order only to the extent unity among of course, is the aesthetic it has a national "taste."21 France, citizens?that "French of this principle. nation and the leading example par excellence "is an act of politeness who share the same she writes, taste," among people same accumulation and although of images and phrases," rhetoric?the a a clan of friends, to his "each person clique, professional belongs family, in clans share "the same battery of in language," that's anchored people a of a "stable that is the mark and conversations," commonality readings in language, in an art of clannishness has been "rooted society." French of shared customs and in this harmonization called French taste."22 living even claims to the art of living, Kristeva that France should With respect be seen as the aesthetic leader of the world: I lodge my body in the logical landscape of France, take shelter in the sleek, easy and smiling streets, rub shoulders with this odd people?they are reserved but disabused and possessed of an impenetrable intimacy and the which is, all things considered, polite. They built Notre-Dame
Louvre, conquered Europe and a large part of the globe, and then went

back home again because with reality. But because

they follow still believe themselves

that goes hand they prefer a pleasure also prefer the pleasures reality they
masters of the world, or at any rate

in hand affords,
a great

power. An
them.

irritated,
To follow

condescending,
us.23

fascinated

world

that seems ready to

work

Kristeva of

net the belief that through narrative?the in political and the interest action is engendered speech?true as Both view these conditions polis may be self-regulated. indispensable to the preservation of civic societies The and European democracy. "gar and flies" in the streets of Sofia and the polluted Bulgarian bage language a lack of inter-esse (to use Martin Heidegger's citizens term) among signify to act for the common good.24 on the deteriorated state of the Bulgarian lan Kristeva's judgment shares with Arendt

in light of her obvious is significant with regard guage civilizing mission to Bulgaria. the lack of national She even correlates with the de hygiene of the national On the one hand, based condition she claims language. for intersubjective in the matrix that narration provides understanding can and should in which the polis-like-democracy subjects speak polylogi and pleasures. On the other hand, their emotions cally, openly negotiate . . . exile for me is an almost dead that "Bulgarian she discloses language . . .now the it with another this old body and substituted cadaverized only one to one: French."25 But this admission question just only leads living she is to render judgment the state of the Bulgarian how qualified upon
language. 21. 22. Angeles, 23. 24. 52, 54. 25. Kristeva, Intimate Revolt, trans. Jeanine Herman (New York, 2002), 243. Ibid., 57. Revolt, She Said, trans. Brian O'Keeffe, ed. Sylv?re Lotringer (Los

Julia Kristeva, 49. 2002), Ibid., 65. For an analysis

of

"inter-esse,"

see

Kristeva,

Crisis

of

the European

Subject,

11,

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Tzvetan

Slavic Review

is a as a historian renowned and literary theorist, Todorov, of Kristeva's and a fellow ?migr? in Paris, and there are many compatriot the other circumstantial similarities in their backgrounds. Approximately same age, both attended in their native Bulgaria, schools French-speaking went to Paris to pursue studies in the 1960s, and were associated graduate an the same intellectual with circle during their early years there. After to Bulgaria in 1981 as absence of eighteen Todorov first returned years, to a celebration of the 1300th anniversary part of the French delegation state. He writes in of the founding of the Bulgarian of this experience to com and enlightening the essay "Roundtrip It is interesting Ticket."26 to her own return, in articulated reactions pare his essay with Kristeva's to Kristeva, in contrast has no political, Todorov, "Bulgaria, My Suffering." or axe to to Bulgaria he returns philosophical, linguistic grind. Though in a semiofficial is modestly his experience through capacity, presented wear he cleans his parents' the details of everyday life. For instance, yard a for eighteen has kept in a drawer of old shoes that his mother ing pair of the touched with humor, examination, years. His essay is a thoughtful to he admits of exile and displacement.27 "existential Though difficulty" he does not conflate the communist toward politics regime, "hostility" or with culture. The question is of language relations with interpersonal to him, as it is to Kristeva. Yet his perspective is not at all critical; of concern for the He first writes his address he is concerned with communication. to which then translates it into he has been invited in French, conference his hosts with not offending concerned through throughout Bulgarian, an inadvertent of examination faux pas. Todorov's thoughtful linguistic leads him to conclude, of exile, and cultural identity language, questions as an debate these questions "I cannot my per judge because impartial of seeing; but I can try to convey sonal fate has forcibly imposed my way sense of his is very differ The the sense of my experience."28 experience own return, which ent from that of Kristeva's is completely self-referential, and above all psychoanalyti with politics, ideology, suffusing "experience" cally based
"Bulgarie,

judgments.
ma souffrance," is, in a word, controversial?as is most of

ma "As for ["Bulgarie, From writes, Sofia, Kambourov in the beginning of the 90s when itwas sweepingly criticised souffrance"], I don't believe Kristeva I have attended; it first appeared in several forums in Bul was ever interested in what we've been about her here, thinking to be a French that the less she and writer intellectual she is so proud garia: the easier the task of self-fulfilment knows about her former culture ap Kristeva's work.
in Tzvetan L'Homme "Aller retour" 11-26. (Ex Todorov, (Paris, 1996), d?pays? from in this article have been translated the French Miller.) by Rosemary quoted as well) cut off he Kristeva clear just how 27. Todorov's (and doubtless essay makes were were "The circumstances in the 1960s. He writes, from Bulgaria after there leaving ... of the rupture those years thus: the length the completeness of my absence; ; during news and hindered the iron curtain; traveled between Sofia and Paris, with difficulty by was actually Paris two places than between the disconnectedness between those greater and San Francisco." 13. Ibid., 26. cerpts 28. Ibid., 21.

Julia Kristeva:

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as it is, her work has polarized to be."29 Controversial critics. Gayatri as an exile, is one of Kristeva's from her own perspective Spivak, writing seems to me to be detractors: "I'm repelled what by Kristeva's politics: . . . on a sort of banal historical her reliance narrative psy Christianizing . . . ferocious Western at the Eurocentrism."30 James Penney, choanalysis a other end of the critical considers her controversial spectrum, position to the in Penney's view, challenge Through ideological. psychoanalysis, Kristeva the impact of ideology the subject's behavior, reduces thus upon the public "the classical between democratic radicalizing split participa on "a tion and private and placing the emphasis enjoyment" fragmented social body divided "In so social, and private domains."31 among political, an outlet for all forms of affect and "she provides he concludes, doing," of the political outside the boundaries machine passion through literary pears
and cultural creation."32

scholar and feminist writer Miglena Nikolchina is one of Bulgarian to the question of place and the relevance those critics who are sensitive to an of "discursive of Kristeva. In her book geography" understanding on Kristeva, to the omits Nikolchina reference direct im any political of Kristeva's into texts, yet she introduces plications political geography as central to her discussion of Kristeva her as the Balkan understanding
woman in exile.

Above I outlined the contradictions between (uncon [Kaja] Silverman scious desire) and [Alice] Jardine (calculated political strategy), Spivak (not a shadow of the past) and [Jane] Gallop (flaunting marginality) in the discussion of Kristeva. The very disparity of these views suggests
that the voice of marginality tends to be perceived as an oscillation be

and the vulgar. We always seem to have too much or too little (the hegemonic (the vulgar Bulgar) Parisian) of the mar in either case, we cannot quite hear it.33 ginal; tween the inaudible defined and of a the absence significations are the true markers of her sexual the critics cannot decide whether Kristeva (Hence, geographic marginality. or a Parisian is a vulgar Bulgarian she is both and neither.) Kriste elitist; va's quest for the lost "maternal inside the symbolic is space" geography to Nikolchina. the source of her dynamic There exactly poly logy, according For Nikolchina, the multiple center in Kristeva's work
simmers the silent joy of a "hidden map" of the lost and found "maternal

space."34 Taking
29. this Kambourov has attitudes with 30. 31.

into account

her

critics'

widely

varying

views, we

should
the way de 2007. 17.

adds,

"On along

the other the

culture

ploring Quoted

developed sometimes

we are so hand, deeply disappointed recent two decades that our lamentations Kambourov, letter to author,

by

and

go way Spivak,

further." Outside

19 March

permission. Chakravorty Does "Uncanny Foreigners: Lane, ed., The Psychoanalysis Matricide in Language: in the Teaching Machine the Subaltern of Race Writing (London, 1993), Speak through Julia 126, 133. (New York, 1998), in Kristeva and Woolf

Gayatri

James Penney, in Christopher Kristeva?" 32. Ibid., 133.

33. Miglena Nikolchina, 60. (New York, 2004), Ibid. 34.

Theory

372
carefully provides examine

Slavic Review

to see if she indeed Kristeva's apparatus conceptual the nonideological is dynamically and where space subjectivity or if she presents dis the old imperial heterogeneously conceptualized course in a new guise, as Spivak claims. to linguistics, and Kristeva's contributions important psychoanalysis, are well documented, but her work may also be seen as phenomenology a "hidden of her identity. Her of "exile" as a state of cos concept map" not so much from her life in Paris as from her mopolitanism originates as a liberated, of herself experience subject exiled fully psychoanalyzed as a from her maternal of birth. Alone in France expe space foreigner, a this experience she theorized culture and language, riencing foreign as "the Other" in exile like her of foreignness in us?that is, of people self who commit from the maternal "matricide," psychological separating to join the in order of the paternal space and language symbolic universe of "abject" civilization. Like "exile" and "the Other," Kristeva's concept nor sub is neither has its basis in the Oedipal scene.35 That which object the that place where that which in the symbolic lacks a place order, ject, distinction self and other must be "abject" in order breaks down between to maintain in the symbolic order. for the subject its own place "Abject" to of meaning and the reaction both the threat of a breakdown represents the necessi such a breakdown. The father represents the symbolic order, the maternal The abject designates ties of life, and the law as cleanliness. and of commitment and the absence inbetweenness, space, ambiguities, trust that are essential to the law. The abject bears a symbolic taint, the remnant of the prerational with the mother. and prelingual unity has that Kristeva is an important theoretical The "chora" concept re the formless from Plato's Timaeus, where he conceptualizes adapted to the reason that brings that gives birth of the mother's ceptacle body of the primal desire form to life.36 She theorizes "chora" as the signifier in order for unity with the mother which the subject must struggle against from to The and enter the symbolic space. separation acquire language the subject exists in the tension the maternal is not absolute. Rather, space of the and the seduction between the joy of speech (desire for the father) state of maternal for the mother). The (desire subject's unity prelingual once she is con from that tension. Here, voice emerges again, unique on two levels, and as a state and geography, subjectivity language structing of permanent rather than a stable center. She theorizes tension language as an forces of Eros and Thanatos. field created by the opposing energetic she be In and through the tension created forces, by these opposing and autonomous is constituted both as desiring lieves, the subject subject as is as dangerous field of language acquisition speaker. But the energetic it is liberating, with Thanatos and Eros (the maternal instinct) (the death for it. The Oedipus, erotic within instinct) struggling vying for dominance and fear in this dangerous castration survival field, wins out when anxiety
35. Kristeva, Powers Julia Kristeva, of Horror; 1984). (New York, garet Waller in Poetic Language. 36. Kristeva, Revolution Revolution in Poetic Language, trans. Mar

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cause the father the Oedipus to relinquish erotic (male and female) to the mother. attachment offers her own displacement Kristeva and exile as a for this liberatory The geopolitical process. biographical template her from her maternal work here as the space contingencies separating law. She even sees her exile as a form of personal salva agency of civilizing tion and imagines her divine to spread the gospel "task" as a mission of the on this debt law in the Balkans: "Yet by relying precisely toward paternal the father, Iwill try to speak of other debts, vis-?-vis the 'dark particularly of
continent,' the maternal continent."37

to her maternal relation and represents space as dynamic in her politics and proceeds to of psychoanalysis heterogeneous incorpo rate geopolitical her logic into the logic of the desiring subject. Through feminine and the experience of giving birth, she remembers her body ... a "archaic mother," "maternal memory within my body."38 Echo body that "the permanence and quality of maternal love argument ing Freud's she infuses this intimate references," pave the way for the earliest spatial with geopolitical and figuratively her body with memory signifiers merges the geopolitical of Europe's Grossraum.39 Yet, the "somber Balkans" map causes her, the subject-in-process, to be in conflict with the geopoliti the cal chora, The attempt to bond with subject-in-geopolitical-process. the cause of today's of the soul": "maladies chora, is, on the one hand, "Borderline and certain aspects of depression," Kristeva personalities pos based on this psychical which also refers its, "may be described economy, to the archaic of nonseparation with the maternal container: relationship the mother the primary On the other the bond hand, being abject."40 can never be severed for the and, indeed, completely speaking subject to find the truth about himself or herself as the some "desiring subject" must connection be maintained. ceases Yet this dynamic model and a static hierarchical structure when Kristeva's emerges personal psychology the geopolitics of the region in her of maternal recapitulates identifying the west the geopolitical of her mind, and space. She designates analogue the Balkans the analogue of her own body and drives, "a blank spot on the a lack of somber Balkans map, geographical pierced by through curiosity the West, where I am."41 about her in general, and the Balkans, in particular, "unconscious," Defining both as the foundation and the refusal of the subject, "the improper facet of the proper and constructs self," Kristeva politicizes Oedipal subjectivity the Balkans' the desiring danger.42 The split from the mother engenders and Kristeva's of her own exilic constitution subject, identity epitomizes this process. That the Balkans is, she denounces only to create a prohib
37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. Julia Ibid., Julia Kristeva, 245. Kristeva, Intimate 245. Beardsworth,/i?/?# Kristeva: Psychonalysis and Modernity (Albany, 2004), 189. New Maladies 260. of the Soul, trans. Ross Guberman (New York, The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt, trans. Jeanine Herman (New York,

Kristeva

2000), 68.

1995), 204.
Kristeva, Ibid., Sara Revolt,

374
ited desire

Slavic Review

for the place to dominate in order Kristeva it symbolically. this prohibited for the Oedipal the precondition desire, registers subjec as the madness of the subject and the only truth about the subject. tivity, Like Plato, she ties truth to desire; unlike Plato she ties it to the maternal for chora obstructs and and subjectivity, space. Just as desire meaning neither is possible without and truth about her are to be it, so the danger found in the prohibited She adopts Balkans. view that signi the Lacanian an leaves a part of it that resists meaning?that is "un object always fying is the Lacanian Real (not the same as reality) and is representable"?this to chora, and it to know that which the desire is "un analogous engenders is the desire is the "umbili which itself.43 The "unnameable" nameable," to the prelingual cal" chord attached unconscious maternal space?the desire for the mother the that resists representation When and meaning. enters of knowledge the symbolic, it fuses with the Real, the mater object to the nal negativity. The desire for the "unnameable" attached remains In desire. the object nothing other than the Oedipus' nameable, making the form of the "unnameable" the mother be operates primal phantasm, as Heideggerian sub hind and between words Sachverhalt. The speaking sublimates into the desire for knowledge, which this primal phantasm ject to recognize "the "the analyst can sight and hear," enabling the analysand to archaic mother is resistant who And, for the psychoanalyst, meaning."44 of this vertigo "a means is, nevertheless, (the "interpretative delirium") us from a masochistic into the and jubilatory fall into nature, protecting a fall which full and pagan mother, is a tempting and crushing enigma some distance for anyone who has not gained from it with the help of an device."45 interpretative state of delirium enables The analytically the subject to con generated front of unconscious desire for the "maternal the danger space." This from the fa of maternal madness has to be redirected space dangerous inter If not analytically ther and the symbolic order toward the mother. If the subject is psy the Oedipus be engulfed the mother. may preted, by and desire made the ensuing delirium may help transparent, choanalyzed to recognize the Oedipus in which the death it is engaged. Thus, struggle an Kristeva that makes believes, counterweight analytic position acquires of analytic delirium work on behalf truth, and the delirious subject open to is already for psychoanaly and structured interpretation positioned sis. Unlike the range of "classical" where interpretation, theory restricts delirium it to preconceptions, by tethering interpretation psychoanalytic to expand its interpretative in order delirium actually capacity. explores discourse is present here not as a fixed neutralizer?a Oedipal straitjacket as a living, active coordination for delirium?but between the analytical and expansion of delirium and the analyst's countertransfer exploration ence. effect Kristeva tells us, should have a shamanistic Interpretation,
43. 44. 45. Samir Dayal, Julia Kristeva, Ibid., 314. "Introduction," The Kristeva in Kristeva, Crisis ?d. Toril Moi of the European Subject, 4L ,310,11. (New York, 1986)

Reader,

Julia Kristeva:

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375

in which of the symbolic the reconstruction leads the subject to connect desire. She elaborates: "Like a de with Oedipus repressed a con lirious subject, the psychoanalyst builds, by way of interpretation, on the part of is true only if it triggers other associations which struction, the analysand, of the analyzable. In other thus expanding the boundaries this analytic is only, in the best of cases, partially true, words, interpretation and its truth, even though it operates with the past, is demonstrable only by its effects in the present."^ the subject from "partial truth" to the brings Analytic interpretation means to of explorative the subject mother and calls upon delirium by to achieve resist and overcome of the maternal in order the blockage awareness comes to un of the Oedipal dialectics. Simply put, the subject a competent that a precondition for becoming is the derstand speaker to Kristeva, to of the Oedipal conflict. And, resolution failure according the delirious maintain the maternal vulner may render separation subject to establish able to manipulation power by demagogues seeking political to achieve unconscious desire. Failure and maintain separa by exploiting an obstacle to tion from the maternal then, by definition, space becomes "intimate" is her case in point of and the Balkans establishing democracy, from lack of Oedipal failed civic intimacy reconstruction. resulting extends Kristeva her theory of the desiring into Specifically, Oedipus scene. in the the situating of language discourse political through Oedipal as a universal That is, she views democracy space where subjects speaking announce as intimate to equivalent and relate themselves others signi fiers. And the Oedipal from the mother since, in her register, separation to intimacy is fundamental and representation, it thus becomes pivotal not only to the formation of the subject but to the viability of (intimate) her theoretical per se. It iswith this logic that she justifies democracy leap to politics, as a potential from language the political oppressor addressing of intimacy that works by blocking the subject's connection with uncon scious desire. She defines the project of Oedipal revolt as working against this blockage and thus for the life of desire that is endangered in any form of social revolution that fails to place the desiring subject and its rejection a reverence at the center of its effort?or to demand of the maternal for from this theoretical the law. It is precisely that she calls for vantage point revolt in the Balkans. Oedipal "When did God die in the Balkans?" Kristeva pon Asking rhetorically, ders the role of Orthodox in the Bulgarian the disorderliness, Christianity She concludes that Orthodoxy, because it fails dangerous geography.47 a proper to provide is responsible for the rise of "tribal" order, symbolic to trib nationalism in eastern and the Balkans. This proclivity Europe in Orthodox alism and violence it particularly subjectivity?rendering to the unification of Europe?originates in the with respect problematic of the father in Orthodoxy. This weak weak symbolic authority symbolic upon the
46. 47. Ibid., Kristeva, 309. in the original. Emphasis Crisis of the European Subject,

176.

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that must of the father (the law) results in a lack of the discipline authority and good taste.48 cleanliness, democracy, underpin to Freud's is central and sexualized theory of sexuality subjectivity as it is to her geopoliti of the Orthodox Kristeva's analysis psyche just cal analysis She constructs of the Balkans. her analysis of the Orthodox as follows: of an archaic and a failed the product psyche religious dogma to the western in opposition stands self, the Orthodox Oedipal psyche stems from Christian self. Western the paternal authority Christianity a distinct of Augustinian narrative has a theory of God, interrogation, and emphasizes and social re tradition, freedom, ratiocination, positive of Orthodox the feminine sponsibility. "theology Christianity emphasizes a to God that leads to relation preconceptual, experience," prenarrative a re from social affairs and to a lack of moral excommunication mystical as a feminine In that sense Orthodox is by sponsibility. psyche subjectivity definition archaic. Western is rational; Orthodox Christianity Christianity is emotional. To further elucidate her position, offers this psycho Kristeva of the Roman analytic interpretation tions of the Holy Trinity: Catholic and Orthodox interpreta

God is threefold in Orthodoxy, but not in the same way as in Catholi cism: the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son for the Orthodox (perfilium) ; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son for the Catholics this "and" puts Father and Son (filioque). While on an the autonomy and independence equal footing and prefigures of the person (that of the Son, as well as that of the Believer, which individualism and personalism), the Orthodox opens the way toWestern of the Son and of the "through" suggests a delicious deadly annihilation
believer.49

and the Son Since God the Father reigns as the omnipotent authority to him as a conduit is subservient of the Holy rather than a source Spirit at in which the Son is subordinate of it, a paradox is created and godlike such a conception is caught the same time. With of the Son, the believer to and exaltation in this same paradox of the Father. As a of submission to the master-slave the joy and sorrow intrinsic result of failed theology, on a more concludes dialectic form, as Kristeva level, a latent personal as well as a masculinization and feminization, of the male homosexuality sub of Orthodox female.50 Ultimately, the pathology then, for Kristeva, rests in and "reverse fear of castration, jectivity producing repression," to the ar of which violence the father?all the return represent against In brief, is chaic mother. the problem with the failing Orthodox Oedipus feminization and the danger of becoming maternal.

who 48. Yet she praises her father "the orthodox intellectual Kristev, Stoyan pushed me to in order learn French from a very early age, of making up to the point byzantinism, to me transmit is endowed." the spirit of inquiry and freedom French culture with which "La Langue, la nation, 3. les femmes," Kristeva, 49. Kristeva, Crisis of the European Subject, 38-39. 50. that offers personal The him level, believer is thus in an exquisite "caught logic of to the master-slave the joys and sorrows intrinsic to male 139. Ibid., homosexuality." submission dialectic and and, exaltation on a more

Julia

Kristeva:

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of the Balkans

377

to Kristeva's A corollary construction is of Orthodoxy psychoanalytic that the way out of the Orthodox feminization and violence is not through the simple ejection of the maternal to the her subjugation but through order of "the dominating other." Splitting the maternal symbolic space is the first step toward this subjugation that should open the archaic mother as sacrifice, for purification inside the sacred space signified by religion are at the "the elimination of taint, and protection the maternal against heart of the constitution of the sacred."51 Thus Kristeva's (and, by exten task is to remove the intrinsic taint of the maternal and sion, the Balkans') restore to the space of the maternal This is where the Orthodox purity. woman cannot go, given the lack of a symbolic order that will permit her to find her own place in that order by killing the primal Mother and re with her in language. connecting Because of the improper in Orthodox the symbolic order Christianity, Balkan does not fit the civilizing of the "sacred contract" scheme subject the genders. In Totem and Taboo, Freud between theorizes that religion is on the need founded for expiation of the guilt that inheres in the collec tive memory of the killing of the primal because father. As such, religion and women in an intimate binds men social contract that seeks to avoid murder and violence. It is of paramount for the woman to up importance hold her share of the contract the father. Orthodox by loving Christianity is one form of this collective cannot uphold the memory; yet its adherents its symbolic structure social contract because fails to discourage violence on a communal and murder. "If society is truly founded Kristeva murder," "the realization that castration the basis for the sociosym argues, provides bolic iswhat will enable human to postpone murder. We symbolize beings murder and thus have an opportunity to transform bale (and ourselves), ful chaos into an optimal order."52 A supporting in sociosymbolic player the sacrificial the Oedipalized is the true conductor woman, drama, pre she has accepted for the sake of peace castration and order. cisely because short ofthat leads to chaos and violence?that is, to acceptance Anything the Balkanization of life. According to this logic, everything that applies to a woman should apply to the Balkans. that this sacrificial contract imposes it Today's women have proclaimed self against their will, which has compelled them to attempt a revolt that
they this perceive revolt to be to be a resurrection. and it can a refusal Society result as a whole, in violence however, between considers the sexes

(a murderous
cultural that is where

hatred,
the stakes

the break-up
In fact, are, it probably and they

of the couple
leads are it, this of to enormous time at

and

the family)
In any consequence. core of the

or in
event, By social

innovation.

them

both.

fighting against bond between

evil, we men and

reproduce women.53

the

Analytic interpretation of the maternal space

51. 52. 53. Kristeva, Kristeva, Ibid. Sense

to take the delirious aiming a is, by definition, geopolitical

of Revolt, of the Soul, 214. 21.

to the edge subject in that it operation

and Non-Sense

New Maladies

378

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tensions individualizes the sense of Oedipal conflict through geopolitical the symbolic between of the Balkans. France and the constructed danger own one finds just that. In order In the case of Kristeva's analytic delirium to encounter madness maternal her maternal space and indwelling by of personal transformation in the course of analysis, she has to arrive way at the (the father (the "blank spot") and "France" signifiers "Bulgaria" who mandates of "Bulgaria" as "a blank the mapping both as per spot"), sonal and geopolitical of her identity. Thus invokes signifiers "Bulgaria" for Kristeva both the analytical and geopolitical maternal madness of car At the very moment and murder. of her geopolitical nage emancipation, when she designates "France" her symbolic the master father, signifier in this geo the "archaic mother." it is precisely And "Bulgaria" becomes its signification location that her femininity political therapeutic acquires as both sexual and political negativity. Her of the culture and political system loyalty to the "special mission" an essential of her adoptive of her negativ becomes country component to the political of the feminine. Inclined ity toward the "blissful anarchy" left when in France she arrived in 1965, two years later Kristeva joined the movement that led to the downfall of Charles Years later, de Gaulle. after her psychoanalytic she regretted Lacan, taking training with Jacques in this uprising. In retrospect, the fallen father: "Neither she mourns part nor Communist a nor was F?hrer, Generalissimo, Pope, de Gaulle simply Catholic unlike like a good and strong father other."54 And, any general who is conceiver you have a President caring for his family, "[In de Gaulle] and strategist of of the national realities by means who creates discourse, the pitfalls of tyranny and modifying circumstances symbols while avoiding for the good of an increasing in mind the enlarged having community, on the interests of its members."55 As a seasoned reflecting psychoanalyst scene in Paris as a fall of 1968, she sees the revolutionary student uprisings as an into primal crime such as that described de Gaulle by Freud?with Catholic father leading and uniting the nation with the power imaginative of the symbol against whom the void of the social the sons rebelled, filling with political symbolic demagogy. of the maternal space Impelled by the symbolic gravity of the danger to guard the need the law of the father, Kristeva's toward trajectory as has continued, certain conservatism political revealing paradoxical of her self-declared, dissidence. For instance, pects center-to-periphery she speaks as a self-analyzed given her own exilic status, from within which one might her to empathize with the collective have expected immigrant, of immigrants and to speak on their behalf social injustice. plight against an to mount she calls upon the Balkans revolt against Or, when Oedipal the authoritarian Orthodox father who has plunged into eth the Balkans one assume nic violence, that she is against political violence. But might a conserva this is not so?in either case. The call to resistance is actually tive call for loyalty to the social authority to orga and for acquiescence and
54. 55. Julia Ibid., Kristeva, 75. Nations without Nationalism, trans. Leon S. Roudiez (New York,

1993), 69.

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as evidenced state violence the failed Oedipus, by her public against of the North Atlantic of Slobodan support Treaty Organization's bombing of the expulsion and her implicit of illegal Milosevic's support Yugoslavia from France who fail to assimilate. immigrants Given her loyalty to social authority, it is questionable her whether notion and exile are the necessary for that displacement preconditions is sustainable. of balkanism) (the opposite "cosmopolitanism" Although in space, French distant and the Balkans are, in Kristeva's reg immigrants nized of her exilic framework identity. While are an the mad, archaic mother, the immigrants symbolize to the father. In fact, using and both are equally dangerous gry children, the same language of Oedipalization with which the Balkans, she abjects accuses Third World Kristeva in France, of "Balkanizing the immigrants and economic forces of European cultural, Indeed, political, people."56 for the "gruesome she blames course" that French civil soci immigrants In 1990, many Revolution. intel French ety has taken since the French a lectuals in favor of granting to illegal signed petition political asylum to do so, Kristeva "Much as I am sensitive stated, immigrants. Refusing to the distress of the immigrants, I don't to think it's desirable equally the deceptive that integration is possible for everyone impression asks for it."57 She justifies her position the issue of by Oedipalizing are those who are marked "ma (like her) with immigration. Immigrants left their maternal countries and languages, and who tricide," who have can become into French culture and society only if they fully integrated as their father. accept French symbolic authority geopolitical Integration is possible and permitted the immi Otherwise only to the Oedipalized. like the failed Oedipus, drown in the maternal grants would, "swamp" that will foster a breakdown of French and balkanize the symbolic authority not expect French French civic space. she would to be culture (Of course to the transformation she demands of immigrants.) open In formulating her project of Oedipal revolt for the reconstruction of Balkan Kristeva does not take into account postcommunist subjectivity, work on Balkan that has emerged any of the groundbreaking subjectivity recent years. Bulgarian-American in historian Maria Todorova's Imagining the Balkans, which articulates the concept of balkanism of (an extension is a case in point. The Balkans Said's orientalism) have always been part of the European nation-state of rationality part of its history imaginary, and of subjectivity, to be more of the history of Europe's or, part precise, an exten The representation of the Balkans thus becomes self-splitting. sion of this history and also becomes internalized into the Balkans' self When Todorova of representation named this process balkanism, identity. two as an in one: the Balkans she included elements contradictory object as a space abandoned and the Balkans explained by rational knowledge, give who by rational knowledge.58 Kristeva Although
56. 57. 58. Ibid., Kristeva, Todorova, 54. Revolt, She Said, 46. the Balkans.

ister, related the Balkans

within

the discursive

does

not

consider

Todorova's

or other

new work

Imagining

380
in Balkan studies is a prime in her own

Slavic Review

sub of Balkan her representation analysis, Slo of the tenets of balkanism. For instance, jectivity example vene accounts for the status Rastko Mocnik political philosopher fully and function of balkanism within the context Two major of globalization. as a structures balkanism of domination and subordination govern priori the Bal the first is horizontal antagonism and as identity: between politics is a vertical kan ethnies, in which each is a potential the second aggressor; of cooperation and the European each of these parties between system of Union. this system of antagonisms and cooperation, Within stereotypes as The Balkan and as identities. Balkan character emerge "knowledge" has been the geopolitical becomes map identity only when complete as an self and inscribed and reflected and incomplete fully ambiguous as such is a to in its very archaic closeness. global supplement ideology revolt naturalizes both aspects of this scheme proposed Kristeva's Oedipal as the to the Balkans horizontal in relationship Mocnik: antagonism by as maternal and as abjected other, space, neighbor, dangerous primitive with the established and vertical (for hierarchy cooperation geopolitical not only the in as France She presupposes symbolic master). example, to end it, asking of Balkan but also the need subjectivity, completeness to the European to subjugate themselves the Balkans authority symbolic to end the Balkans' liminal She wants ambiguity, through psychoanalysis. it is feminizing and thus patho because and inbetweenness ity, precisely an internal this for herself split between through logical. She has achieved of civilizing masculinity the west and the east. Such a gesture paradoxically a common As with balkanizes her own position. orientalisms," "nesting is east of me as a way I find what in which feature of Balkan parochialism to to find who is east of her in order is bound to assert my west, Kristeva define herself as civilized.59 eth that small Balkan argues Ugo Vlaisavljevic philosopher of their symbolic nies may be characterized the closeness space and by serve as a frame of ref to protect which their "little traditions," work may re erence for establishing the reality of the nation.60 Their parochialism is a worldview that Kristeva their ethnic This sults from defending reality. as a on her intellectual instead identity "cosmopolitan rejects, insisting and Bulgarian French of European nationality, origin."61 Yet citizenship, on her own and the terms in which her very insistence cosmopolitanism, she rejects and the the parochialism she defines it, blurs the line between and sees as the ideal for a fully for herself she claims cosmopolitanism she won In fact, when of strangers."62 "federation European Oedipalized Bosnian
59. colonizing east-west Hayden, 60. I. Bjelic Here I refer to Bakic-Hayden's notion of each discursive geopolitical "Nesting to which orientalisms" "nesting the Balkan subjects in terms of these other as specific internalize self the Bakic

processes

split and Orientalisms."

according then act upon Slav

sch?mas.

Vlaisavljevic, Ugo and Obrad Savic,

"South eds.,

Balkan

in Dusan the Ultimate and War-Reality," Identity as and Fragmentation Globalization Between Metaphor:

191-207. Mass., 2002), (Cambridge, 4. "La Langue, les femmes," la nation, 61. Kristeva, as the to her dedication reminds 62. And, us, despite John Mowitt psychoanalysis this form of Oedipal from of the soul," she excludes "maladies for today's cure" "talking whose of Arabic-speaking the entire she, immigrants language population redemption,

Julia ders

Kristeva:

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381

suburbs in French the anger of "these young people [French " she is repro to express their unhappiness," "have a need who Algerians] under the sign of Parisian ethnies of the Balkan the provincialism ducing about to elucidate Balkan Kristeva's attempt subjec is that her use of such terms as archaic and tivity through psychoanalysis to her is central in articulating her theory of the abject, which primitive to her discourse when of "sacred," lends racial overtones applied concept is the key to to Celia Brickman, "'primitive' According geopolitically. of a psychologizing the watchword of psychoanalysis, the racial economy an ideology of race."64 For Brick is concealed which behind discourse self "the supreme of "primitivity" Freud's articulation man, emphasizes "the universality of European confidence affirming self-understanding," term the racially indexed at the same time as it remained of the psyche of civilization."65 to discredit the pretensions of derogation enlisted By Kristeva of her French the civilizing incorpo identity, superiority stressing in her project rates these inherent aspects of psychoanalysis exclusionary in its own right Balkan of Oedipal revolt; she fails to elucidate subjectivity the Balkans.66 relation with of having dialogical and denies the possibility another in fact, is to produce she does, What representa yet hegemonic to believe that she follows Bakhtinian tion of the Balkans, while appearing to envision, and dialogism of heterogeneity through psycho principles of rebirth and creation."67 the "subject as a dynamic analysis, were early adher Todorov and her compatriot In fact, both Kristeva to in bringing his work instrumental ents of Mikhail and were Bakhtin with the attention History?about bolic system of his book The Morals In the first chapter the west.68 of the sym Catholic how an advanced culture, Spain, used discuss to colonize of South America?Todorov, the natives of
"Strangers in Analysis: Nationalism and the

psychoanalysis.63 Another difficulty

not the therapist, does speak. John Mowitt, 56. Parallax 4, no. 3 (1998): Cure," Talking She Said, 106. 63. Kristeva, Revolt, 64. Celia Brickman, Populations Aboriginal 5. 2003), (New York, analysis 65. 66. ian Ibid. M. Pierette of Kristeva's

in theMind:

Race

and Primitivity

in Psycho

in the Bakhtin the heterogeneity, refutes Malcuzynski specifically of heterogeneity also should "A Bakhtinian work: understanding a She postulates of the 'heterogeneous.' discussion from Julia Kristeva's be distinguished the subject's of the subject's Freudian (neo) whereby revolutionary struggle, interpretation contradiction' the with should be heard discourse 'heterogeneous suspended together ... a Freudo-Marxist In my view, Kristeva operates syncretism subject. by the Marxist a or drive in Freud's instinct still grounded which, (Trieb) yet again presupposes theory a its originating an all-powerful with summit, subject ruling subject producing hierarchy of the itself T which calls (moi). This prob 'heterogeneous' representation particular to in Bakhtin's referred the constitutive lem has little to do with by writing heterogeneity is a the producing means where of ?Miierarchization of the polyphonic: subject practice as the socio-cultural instances with other of dialogized itself understood subjects." product F. in Robert and the Sociocritical Bakhtin "Mikhail M. Pierrette Practice," Malcuzynski, issue of Social Discourse: and Otherness, and Michael eds., Bakhtin special Holquist, Barsky 89. vol. 3, nos. in Comparative 1-2 Research Papers Literature, (1990): 8-9. la nation, "La Langue, les femmes," 67. Kristeva, on Bakhtin: as the definitive work viewed of a text widely is the author 68. Todorov The Dialogical Mikhail Bakhtin: Tzvetan 1984). Todorov, (Minneapolis, Principle sense,

382

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to a of exotopy explains it as "nonbelonging concept ing the Bakhtinian not only to Bakhtin, culture." And, he writes further, given "According to it is the is exotopy not an obstacle of this culture, knowledge thorough "It is only in of it."69 He goes on to quote Bakhtin: condition necessary com the eye of an other culture, itself more that the alien culture reveals a to be illuminated, and more In other words, in order pletely deeply."70 to be dialogically to "other" cultures culture needs in relation rather than to abject them. of the self, for the Lacanian split, fragmentation the other. For her, there is only the Oedipal dialogue split between For Todorov, the Balkan morbid and the French abject imperial symbol. of "primitive" only signifies the concept the relation of power; for Kristeva, in the Balkans. it is a regressed civilization localized stage of European not exotopy, and Christian iswhat Kristeva Colonial exaltation, expresses, to believe she writes, in the myth of resurrec when "I am almost prepared state of my mind I examine tion when the divided and body."71 is an ?migr?, her discourse herself in part because Kristeva Perhaps on exile has been widely as advocating cultural pluralism, interpreted an elaborate, for cultural rationale it actually presents normative whereas she frames her and ethnic and racial exclusionism. Though homogeneity in psychoanalytic it also strongly bears the earmarks of discourse theory, In Kriste does psychoanalysis discursive itself). (as European geography as the Lacanian the va's psychoanalytic scheme, France operates Symbolic, to become that enables formative matrix of the Oedipalization foreigners to culture. According and to assimilate into French subjects complete un is the ability to confront the precondition for Oedipalization Kristeva, as its danger, for the maternal desire conscious space and recognize just from transformation she herself had to do in her self-proclaimed Oedipal to French Undergoing psychoanalysis incomplete subject psychoanalyst. as to identify her own Bulgarian in Paris led Kristeva origins pathological. as the "other" in the As analysand, she then moved from seeing herself as the host?"the to seeing herself other." Over host country dominating with the "host" came to dominate her subject position, time, identification as was reinforced and this perspective by her role psychoanalyst. the same Not surprisingly, under her therapy have exhibited foreigners as she and are thus structure of matricide equally pathologized. psychic notes clinical Her often doesn't read, just respond language "changing to a political that no satisfactory but is the sign of a matricide urgency, or compensate relation with could prevent the Father for."72 In essence, a trauma that's exile as pathology, "exile often harbors she defines writing on: it to to confront difficult and elaborate these patients predisposes to fundamen to corruption, that runs from cynicism defiance acting-out Kristeva substitutes with

69. Tzvetan The Morals Todorov, in the 4. Emphasis original. in the original. 70. Ibid. Emphasis 71. Kristeva, Intimate Revolt, 243. She Said, 79 72. Kristeva, Revolt,

ofHistory,

trans. Alyson

Waters

(Minneapolis,

1995),

Julia Kristeva:

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and Geopolitics

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as the of the Balkans talism."73 Kristeva's designation sign of the archaic in immigrants connects mother the geopolitics of Europe, the formation of "intimate and her own biography into a self-referential democracy," in psychoanalytic scheme anchored then, that theory. We may conclude, in the sense that Kristeva's exclusionism is ??//-orientalizing psychoanalytic as the east to her French she locates and subjugates her Bulgarian origins in turn?mimicking orientalisms"?to main Then, superego. "nesting as her west, tain her identification she oriental with the French superego
izes "strangers."

Kristeva has adopted the point of view of "the dominating other" as the for the Balkans is also evident in and immigrants process healing her disregard of cultural, and historical of geographic, contingencies on exile. This ahistorical in formulating her discourse place perspective as the she represents the Balkans becomes when problematic particularly of archaic violence, of unconscious of the Freudian Tribe. In desire, place there has been, for the shows that violence fact, the history of the Balkans on behalf most of European ideals. In the part, state-organized political intervention that prompted Kristeva's 1990s, the violence psychoanalytic states "defend into the region ethnic stemmed from newly established and its founding ethnic minori ing" the idea of nation myths against ties. Finding the ethnic the "archaic" and "primitive" elements enemy, na to the east, became the political of Balkan located obsession usually tionalism. of exile recreates this Kristeva's psychoanalytic interpretation obsession?in the heart of Paris?by the "archaic east" in the situating of "strangers" psyche living there. is yet another Balkan nationalism and psycho There between parallel on an For the Serbs, for exam Both are founded analysis. originary myth. not only underlies the idea of the Serb nation-state ple, the Kosovo myth in the Kosovo In the but serves to justify state-organized violence region. case of it is the Oedipal that justifies Kristeva's des myth psychoanalysis, as of the Balkans and immigrants subjects. incomplete Psycho ignation in a closed grid of then, both operate analysis and nationalist mythologies, the two is in the scope of their application. between power. The difference to reinforce invoked Balkan the myths such as those that have been While of psychoanalysis remain nationalism is, by its own local, the Oedipal myth and unassailable.74 definition, universally applicable That
73. 74. Ibid., 79. Kristeva articulates

the uncertainties yond me to be the lay version, from another ing which, and contemporaries. Kristeva, "M?moire,"

and

My L Infini

as follows: of psychoanalysis "Be application seems to of analytical institutions, psychoanalysis be for the truth of the speaking one, of this search for certain of my friends of view, is symbolized by religion point own is analyzable is believing that God infinitely." Julia prejudice this borderless perversities and the only 1 (Winter 1983): 45.