Julia Kristeva (Paris): Refounding Europe Through Culture

Unfortunately the event is fully booked. Please register for waiting list at info@ici-berlin.org.

A collaboration of: ICI Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung

The globalized world promotes, as never before in human history, encounters but also confrontations between individuals, nations, and cultures. Some react by trying to strengthen and even secure identities; nationalisms, sovereignties and populisms are becoming radicalized. Others dream of a happy, globalized, diversified, and fraternal humanity. Assuming that identity is necessary, the talk will address three topics: the identity of radicalized teens and the role of ideals in the construction of identity; the caring for the disadvantaged, the disabled, and those in precarious situations and the need to leave behind the paradigm of ›lack‹ and ›deficiency‹ to focus support on the respect of singularity; and the concept of freedom, seen not as a transgression, but as creativity.

The Lecture will be held in English.

Julia Kristeva is a literary theorist, psychoanalyst, and writer. Born in Bulgaria, Kristeva has lived and worked in France since 1966. She is the director of the doctoral school for Languages, Literature, Image, Civilisation and Social Sciences at the Université Paris 7 – Denis Diderot. Kristeva is an officer of the French National Order of Merit and the Legion of Honor; she has received numerous honorary doctorates (from Harvard, Toronto, Bayreuth, and Sofia, just to name a few). She is a member of the Institut universitaire de France (2000) and the British Academy (2004). In 2004 she received the Holberg International Memorial Prize. In 2006 she was awarded the Hannah Arendt Prize.