Conference Presentations by Bayonne Said
Kristeva’s focus on the maternity is central to her theory of subjectivity, yet frequently misund... more Kristeva’s focus on the maternity is central to her theory of subjectivity, yet frequently misunderstood. While it provides us with a prototype of human passion, it appears to be paradoxical: only from the mother’s narcissistic desire comes selfless love for the child; the explosions of passion must be defused in order to allow for the explosions of plural representability. By analyzing and connecting Kristeva’s chapter on maternal passion (“The Passion According to Motherhood”) with her chapter on passionate timelessness (“The Sobbing Girl; or, On Hysterical Time”) I will elucidate both concepts to further describe the defusing of passion. I refer to Fanny Söderbäck’s “Motherhood According to Kristeva: On Time and Matter in Plato and Kristeva,” to supplement my exegesis and incorporate her description of chora as movement before linear time with the passion’s “movement” or transformation in the imaginary. Then, I will reinterpret the defusing of passion as resisting paradox because its movement is an oscillation between linear time and timelessness.
Papers by Bayonne Said
Julia Kristeva’s concept of maternal passion plays a central role within her larger theory of sub... more Julia Kristeva’s concept of maternal passion plays a central role within her larger theory of subjectivity and is often criticized by feminists and misunderstood by new readers. In feminist reaction to this concept, she has been accused of biological essentialism, perpetuating patriarchal and heteronormative systems, and relegating femininity to mystery and subjugation. Yet, Kristeva’s theory of maternal passion is actually the source of her resistance to each of these accusations. This paper intends to explain how maternal passion is the prototype of passion for all subjects, regardless of sex or gender, by defining key concepts surrounding maternal passion, in part to assist new readers in navigating feminist critiques surrounding her emphasis on maternity. I contextualize maternal passion within her unorthodox psychoanalytic approach, distinguish her concept of passion from emotion, explain why it is called ‘maternal’, and situate its function within her greater project of addressing the process of subjectivity in depressive social times. By investigating and connecting ideas from her early and late theory, I argue that maternal passion is grounded in Kristeva’s theory of the semiotic and mediated by detachment, which inaugurates psychic life and early subject formation (i.e., subjectivation), thereby founding the capacity to construct loving bonds with others.
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Conference Presentations by Bayonne Said
Papers by Bayonne Said