Julia Kristeva is one of the foremost figures on the French intellectual scene today. Professor of semiology at the University of Paris VII and visiting professor of French at Columbia University, a practicing psychoanalyst and an internationally renowned scholar, she is also the author of over a dozen books. Her major publications that have been translated into English include a selection of essays written over a period of 10 years and published under the titles Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature, Revolution in Poetic Language, and Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. As these titles suggest and as her most recently translated book Black Sun confirms, Kristeva's work draws on multiple sources and cuts across several disciplines. Its importance has been largely acknowledged by American readers, and it has