Julia Kristeva's semanalysis and the legacy of Émile Benveniste
pp. 235-248
in: Inna Semetsky (ed), Edusemiotics, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
This essay addresses Julia Kristeva's concept of semanalysis in view of the legacy of Émile Benveniste. Both scholars shared a critical approach to semiotics. Kristeva followed Benveniste's footsteps in looking for support in psychoanalytic theory in order to better understand the genealogy of the signifying process as well as the heterogeneity of texts. Benveniste's notion of the speaking subject becomes crucial for Kristeva's semiotics. While making the concept of signifiance central to her scholarship, after 1969 Kristeva continued to rework this and other notions of Benveniste, such as histoire (narrative) in relation to discourse. The chapter by and large follows a historical trajectory and traces the theoretical development of semiotics in the works of Kristeva and Benveniste up to date. The concluding section of the chapter addresses the role of Kristeva in inspiring some recent developments in edusemiotics. Her conceptualizations of semanalysis, subject in process, jouissance , revolt, and others—especially when positioned in the context of philosophy of education and not philosophy of language—surpass their purely theoretical significance and demonstrate a number of significant implications at the level of cultural practices. Notably, the latest Kristeva herself expanded the field of theoretical semiotics to incorporate socio-cultural and political dimensions of human experience that are proving to be of immense value for educational theory.
