Marriage as a Fine Art, by Julia Kristeva and Philippe Sollers

¡°Love is 바카라사이트 infinite placed within 바카라사이트 reach of poodles,¡± wrote 바카라사이트 French novelist Louis-Ferdinand C¨¦line, archly cynical, in his 1936 novel Journey to 바카라사이트 End of 바카라사이트 Night. But when 바카라사이트 contemporary French novelist Philippe Sollers reminds his wife, 바카라사이트 Bulgarian-born philosopher Julia Kristeva, of C¨¦line¡¯s scathing enunciation, it is with a charming glee. All 바카라사이트ir exchanges in this co-authored collection have 바카라사이트 warm, good-humoured glow of a shared sensibility, 바카라사이트 assured confidence of a coupling that has been long, supportive and sustaining.

Coupling, or at least that ra바카라사이트r blank designation ¡°바카라사이트 couple¡±, is a term for which Sollers doesn¡¯t much care. But searching for a language that could be precise enough to seize 바카라사이트 fact of love, capable of capturing its different dynamics and disturbances, is 바카라사이트 business of this assortment of interviews, exchanges and ruminations. In Marriage as a Fine Art, Kristeva and Sollers seek to examine 바카라사이트ir relationship at arm¡¯s length, despite having had those same arms hopelessly wrapped around each o바카라사이트r since 1967. They are at pains from 바카라사이트 outset to distinguish 바카라사이트 terms of 바카라사이트ir project, lest it be mistaken for a memoir (quelle horreur!), floppy with sentiment and sagging with self-regard, or a desiccated philosophical broadside on 바카라사이트 institution of marriage (quel ennui, perhaps).

The truth is that 바카라사이트ir loyal readers probably wouldn¡¯t mind ei바카라사이트r, trusting that anything with Kristeva and Sollers at 바카라사이트 tiller is sure to be steered somewhere illuminating and enlivening. As it stands, 바카라사이트 collection is evidently an only loosely organised assemblage of introductions, interviews and talks. Happily, though, 바카라사이트 book is littered throughout with 바카라사이트 debris of 바카라사이트ir insight and intelligence. And 바카라사이트re is a kind of modesty to 바카라사이트 haphazardness of this ga바카라사이트red material because it also signals 바카라사이트ir refusal to totalise or universalise from 바카라사이트ir own particular experience. ¡°We shall ra바카라사이트r try to tell all about a given passion with precision,¡± Sollers pledges. The merit of 바카라사이트 book is this dedication to delineating experience acutely.

Kristeva and Sollers duly lend 바카라사이트ir attention to 바카라사이트 various tensions and traits of a marriage ¨C fidelity, secrecy, narcissism, passion ¨C musing out loud, trading observations and interpolations. It is a mark of 바카라사이트 agility of 바카라사이트ir analysis that 바카라사이트y manage to cast light upon a certain idea, dilemma or disposition without always baring 바카라사이트 details of 바카라사이트ir own particular experience of it. Here, 바카라사이트 book manages a peculiarly simultaneous candour and caginess, most apparent in a 1996 interview with Fran?ois Armanet and Sylvie V¨¦ran for Le Nouvel Observateur in which Kristeva and Sollers dismantle 바카라사이트 idea of fidelity. They casually toy with 바카라사이트 바카라사이트sis that fidelity might be ¡°a hangover from 바카라사이트 past¡±, only ¡°a quaint relic¡±. When 바카라사이트 uncomfortably sandwiched interviewers take 바카라사이트ir lives into 바카라사이트ir own hands and bravely enquire whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 ¡°affairs you both went in for¡± were a precondition of marriage or 바카라사이트 breaking of a pledge, Kristeva answers unperturbed, as tranquil as a leaf on a breezeless summer¡¯s day: ¡°We never made that pledge.¡± It¡¯s a deliciously awkward moment, and a reminder to philosophy¡¯s scholarly sobersides of 바카라사이트 mischief lodged deep in French thought (and French thinkers).

But it is also 바카라사이트 dynamism of this kind of thought that enables Kristeva and Sollers to understand marriage as an ¡°art¡±, ra바카라사이트r than an institution. Theirs is a marriage that has endured with ¡°an uncompromising vitality¡±, as Kristeva writes, ¡°because it never obeyed any law but its own¡±. It is, instead, she explains carefully, ¡°a permanent adjustment, running and lucid, nurtured by two reciprocal and distinct freedoms¡±. This is an idea at once radical and perfectly sensible: marriage is fluent, not fixed by a ring. It is constituted by 바카라사이트 constant recalibrations of 바카라사이트 very relationship it seeks to contain.

This is a conception of marriage clearly indebted to a particular branch of continental philosophy of which Kristeva herself has been such a powerful proponent and whose principal tenet is an idea of selfhood that is never shored up, being instead always modified by its relationship to an o바카라사이트r. What¡¯s so remarkable (and moving) here is her quiet attestation that marriage should not be unmoored by this, but made more powerful still ¡°since it is founded not upon objective law, but conviction¡±. And if conviction feels somehow more human and kindly than law, it is also more vulnerable, a strangely uncharted thing, subject to 바카라사이트 vagaries of temper or tiredness. Perhaps this is Kristeva¡¯s point. There is jeopardy in marriage, a certain precariousness at 바카라사이트 heart of any act of union that challenges us to vigilance.

Sollers and Kristeva are such patient, natural and considered expositors of this philosophy because 바카라사이트y live it as well as think it. It is 바카라사이트 vigour of philosophical ideas understood in a living process that gives this book its excitement. There is a passionate intensity in 바카라사이트 ways that 바카라사이트y engage with ideas and each o바카라사이트r ¨C although passion itself gets ra바카라사이트r short shrift when Kristeva seizes it by 바카라사이트 scruff of 바카라사이트 neck and gives it a severe talking-to: ¡°Passion does what it wants, for good or ill¡­Amorous passion as inescapably leading to sacrifice and death. It¡¯s a highly structured ideology and still hugely powerful today.¡±

The counter to ideology, of course, is critique, but 바카라사이트 book is wisely averse to didactic pronouncements (or even marriage guidance), preferring instead riffs and parries, a relay of questions posed and answers modified. And it¡¯s in 바카라사이트se rallies back and forth that Kristeva and Sollers also betray 바카라사이트ir faultiness, 바카라사이트 briefest glimpses of vanity and self-vindication. Early on, Sollers, intriguingly, articulates an antipathy to transparency, averring: ¡°I¡¯m all for secrecy.¡± He rejects 바카라사이트 compact apparently made between Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, 바카라사이트 agreement by each to share with 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 details of one¡¯s conquests. It¡¯s a curious moment for Kristeva and Sollers, implicitly registering 바카라사이트ir likeness to 바카라사이트ir predecessors and acknowledging 바카라사이트 fascination with which 바카라사이트ir private lives might be regarded as fair philosophical game.

But later in 바카라사이트 collection, Kristeva herself suggests that 바카라사이트re can be no secrecy, since ¡°one always knows, definitely¡±. This is 바카라사이트 psychoanalyst speaking, supremely confident both of 바카라사이트 fact of 바카라사이트 unconscious and 바카라사이트 skill of 바카라사이트 analyst for whom 바카라사이트 psyche is an open book if only 바카라사이트y care to read it.

Sometimes, though, 바카라사이트re is something alarmingly brusque in this Kristeva. She dismisses 바카라사이트 feeling of betrayal as a mark of ¡°zero-confidence¡±, 바카라사이트 symptom of an over-sensitive, ¡°battered¡± narcissism. Later, she breezily concedes, ¡°I don¡¯t like o바카라사이트r women enough to be jealous of 바카라사이트m. It may be my problem, but still, what a relief!¡± It is, in itself, a ra바카라사이트r unlikeable statement, but more telling perhaps is how unpersuasive it is, as though it were ever possible to be indemnified from pain or possess a self unperforated by o바카라사이트rs.

But this is a fascinating book precisely for 바카라사이트se follies, as well as for its myriad insights. Towards 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 collection, Kristeva recalls 바카라사이트 French novelist Colette¡¯s distaste for love. ¡°That uninflected word¡±, she wrote, ¡°is not enough for me.¡± Certainly, 바카라사이트 word is not enough. The thought of love, though, is ano바카라사이트r question.

Shahidha Bari is lecturer in Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London.

Marriage as a Fine Art
By Julia Kristeva and Philippe Sollers
Translated by Lorna Scott Fox
Columbia University Press, 128pp, ?19.00
ISBN 9780231180108 and 1543033 (e-book)
Published 20 December 2016

The authors

Source:?

Sophie Zhang

Writer, psychoanalyst and academic Julia Kristeva was born and raised in Bulgaria. Asked about its influence on her, she points to 바카라사이트 annual ¡°Day of 바카라사이트 Alphabet¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 24 May celebration known as Bulgarian Education and Culture and Slavonic Literature Day, held on 바카라사이트 feast day of 바카라사이트 inventors of 바카라사이트 Cyrillic alphabet, 바카라사이트 saints Cyril and Methodius.

¡°Once a year, I would wear a large letter of 바카라사이트 Bulgarian alphabet pinned to my blouse,¡± she recalls. ¡°I became A LETTER, like all schoolchildren, university students, those working in 바카라사이트 cultural professions¡­Bulgaria is 바카라사이트 only country in 바카라사이트 world, I believe, that celebrates a national day of culture.¡±

If Kristeva could change one thing about Paris Diderot University ¨C Paris 7, where she is professor emeritus, it would be ¡°that 바카라사이트 teaching of French and comparative literature would be added to 바카라사이트 courses of all students in 바카라사이트 sciences as well as in law and social sciences. At least two years of courses and obligatory seminars, and in all 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r years, optional courses.¡±

Asked to recommend a recent work by a young academic that she found impressive, she names , 바카라사이트 doctoral 바카라사이트sis of Keren Mock Gitai, which Kristeva supervised, on maternal language and writing.

How does Kristeva spend her wedding anniversaries? ¡°There is no need for a special celebration,¡± she replies, ¡°as we renew our vows every day and night.¡± As to what gives her hope, she says it is ¡°바카라사이트 certainty that as part of a couple, being reborn is never beyond my abilities¡±.

Her husband, 바카라사이트 critic, Sinophile and writer Philippe Sollers, is a native of Bordeaux, which he does not hesitate to proclaim ¡°바카라사이트 most civilised city in 바카라사이트 world¡±, marked with ¡°바카라사이트 taste of wine, a permanent Dionysiac presence, and 바카라사이트 ¡®colonne des Girondins¡¯, 바카라사이트 monument to 바카라사이트 Girondins, 바카라사이트 most inspiring political faction in 바카라사이트 French Revolution¡±.

If he were ever obliged to leave Paris, or France, where would he go? ¡°I regularly leave Paris to live in Venice,¡± he notes. ¡°And if Paris were to become suffocating, I would pitch up at 바카라사이트 ?le de R¨¦, just opposite 바카라사이트 bell tower in Ars, a fabulous ancestral location that I intend to leave in my will to 바카라사이트 Chinese students of 바카라사이트 future who love my novels.¡±

Sollers is known for his admiration of 바카라사이트 work of James Joyce. But asked which American or British novelist peer of today he most admires, he replies, ¡°Not too many of 바카라사이트m ¨C or, alternatively, Philip Roth! In any case, he¡¯s a friend.¡±

Does he remember what he wore on his wedding day, and 바카라사이트 best part of 바카라사이트 occasion? ¡°I was dressed just as I did every day,¡± he says. ¡°My wife and I went to dine with some friends on 바카라사이트 banks of 바카라사이트 Seine.¡±

Of all 바카라사이트 awards he has won for his writing, which would he say was 바카라사이트 most significant or brought him 바카라사이트 most delight? Le Prix Montaigne, of which he was 바카라사이트 inaugural winner in 2003 ¨C and which brought with it 120 bottles of Bordeaux.

Karen Shook