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Location: VIII: Kristeva II/Fanon
Discussion: Kristeva Reading Part 1
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mmcarval |
Kristeva Reading Part 1
Mar 20 2007, 11:12 AM EDT
Reading Kristeva’s essay, I had a difficult time with some of the vocabulary she used, particularly poetic and thetic language. When Kristeva says “poetic language,” is she referring only to poetry, or is “poetic language” simply language that is not proposing a thesis of some sort? Does poetic language include all of literature, only fictional writing, or something else entirely? On page 133, Kristeva writes that “heterogeneousness…produces in poetic language ‘musical’ but also nonsense effects that destroy not only accepted beliefs and significations, but, in radical experiments, syntax itself.” Reading this, I figured that “poetic language” referred only to poetry since it is the most free-form style of writing and does not require correct grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. In this way, poetry would embody the idea of the “destruction of syntax.” However, I did not understand how poetry would also destroy “accepted beliefs and significations,” which makes me think that “poetic language” must refer to something else besides poetry. Moreover, I did not quite understand what Kristeva meant by “beliefs” – beliefs about what? Is she referring to the many ideological beliefs we all hold? She also says on page 137 that “poetic language is linked with ‘evil’”. What does she mean by this? She says that poetic language is evil because it “utters incest” but also that it is the “social body’s self defense against the discourse of incest (italics mine)”. Which is it? Does poetic language encourage incest or does it protect the social body from it? How is incest even related to poetic language in the context of this essay?
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