Strangers to Ourselves
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:1st Feb '24
£20.00
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
This book is concerned with the notion of the stranger—the foreigner, outsider, or alien in a country and society not their own—as well as the notion of strangeness within the self, a person’s deep sense of being, as distinct from outside appearance and their conscious idea of self.
Julia Kristeva begins with the personal and moves outward by examining world literature and philosophy. She discusses the foreigner in Greek tragedy, in the Bible, and in the literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and the twentieth century. By considering the legal status of foreigners throughout history, Kristeva offers a different perspective on our own civilization.
Kristeva suggests that the antidote to xenophobia, racism and other weapons against outsiders is to recognize that "the foreigner is within us." [Strangers to Ourselves] demonstrates [Kristeva’s] amazing command of history, politics, literature, linguistics, and psychology. . . . [and] argues powerfully for a radical examination of self, beginning with the realization that what is most fearful to us in the stranger may be the very quality we do not want to recognize in ourselves. * San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle *
Kristeva’s most accessible book to date, of broad historical scope and deep personal passion. It is also a very wise book * Comparative Literature *
[An] elegant account of the links between subjectivity and heteronomy. * Radical Philosophy *
ISBN: 9780231214612
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
232 pages