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Reviewing these two books, Je me voyage: Mémoires, by Julia Kristeva and Samuel Dock, and At the Risk of Thinking: An Intellectual Biography of Julia Kristeva by Alice Jardine, presents a fascinating challenge for the reviewer. Both books are out of the ordinary conventions in their respective genres. One is an autobiographical dialogue between the psychoanalyst and philosopher Julia Kristeva and a young psychoanalyst, Samuel Dock, who interviews her over several weeks. The other is an intellectual biography of Kristeva written by a former student and close friend, Alice Jardine. Taken separately and together, the two books elaborate, interlace, and reflect the different voices, layers, and directions of Kristeva's life and work. Kristeva is highlighted in both books as a person, as a psychoanalyst, and as a philosopher. The multifaceted identity the two books depict reflects Kristeva's view that one is not a unified ego but rather a “multiverse” of intertwining and multilayered aspects. In these two books, she is portrayed from a range of perspectives: through her own words, through the questions and comments of Dock, and through the eyes of Jardine.
To write an essay on these books is also an exercise in following a double polyphony and a multiverse. Je me voyage was published in 2016. An English translation followed in 2020, included in The Library of Living Philosophers (Volume 36, The Philosophy of Julia Kristeva). Je me voyage consists of conversations with Kristeva based on questions preceded by careful study and preparation by Dock. The interviews begin with biographical details and
then range over Kristeva's entire œuvre as she thinks out loud and travels from recounting, to thinking, to rethinking, to reviewing, and to elaborating in the present tense on her life and ideas.
Jardine refers to Je me voyage, respecting Kristeva's version of biographical details. In Jardine's exploration, however, she includes her own understanding of some of the biographical