About Chinese women: Ethnography, ethnology and anthropology in Julia Kristeva's semanalysis
Abstract
In this paper I examine the ethnographic, ethnological and anthropological aspect of Julia Kristeva’s semanalysis, signalling About Chinese women [1974] as a clear example of its application. Dialoguing with the French structuralist semiology of the second half of the 20th century, and influenced by Lévi-Strauss’ structural anthropology, Kristeva introduces the issue of human sociocultural diversity in the very constitution of her semanalysis, thus questioning the ethnocentrism implicit in some of the elements of semiology. From this perspective, and taking into account Kristeva’s own explicit positioning, About Chinese women appears, not as a work of exclusively political motivations that responds to the political climate after May '68, marked by the debacle of the French Communist Party, but as the result of a sociocultural interest akin to the ethnographic, ethnological and anthropological approach.
Format
Crossmark
License
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Revista de Filosofía is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
