Dissolved politics and artistic imagination. On Kristeva's revolution and revolt

Abstract

In her work, Julia Kristeva uses two disparate concepts: revolution and revolt. In this article we will try to outline these concepts as different approaches to the relations between power, art and psychoanalysis. By placing the concepts of revolt and revolution in dialogue with each other, and by pointing out that the dialogue departs from the notion of experience, we will attempt to reconstruct the important contribution that Kristeva's work offers. Her perspective reveals that artistic expression is linked to a specific kind of politics (dissolved politics). Kristeva's view of literary and psychoanalytic practice is then, we argue, something that can contribute to its realisation, albeit in a limited way.