PERSONAL COMMENT ON ORAL EXPOSITIONS ABOUT JULIA KRISTEVA’S “Il bisogno di credere” (Paris, 2006)

Today lesson was interesting for various reasons.

To being with it dealt with Postmodern philosopher and psychiatrist J. Kristeva’s thought. I was mainly fascinated about the development of her reasoning. Since she adopts a deconstructionist method of analysis, her thought is an illustration of postmodern research. Therefore an application of a studied model was provided together with more awareness on postmodernism culture and philosophy. Furthermore, Kristeva gained her thesis thanks to a deep knowledge of fundamental aspects in culture and provided interesting stimuli for reflection. As a result good argumentation was also provided.

The striking cultural connection between the search for beauty, the inevitability of illness and the need to believe was the main finding. That made me reflect on my previous work about “Illness and Being-toward-Death” and reconsider some points.

In particular, I appreciated her attention to human condition, not aimed at giving advices for the future or explaining past cultural paradigms, but heading for investigating reasons of human need to believe in a value. Some central characters in the history of Christianity were mentioned and their impact in culture was examined. Consequently I feel to belong to a precise culture, based on the tension to find happiness and the contingent presence of illness. Art, as a mean for creating beauty, has always been the best form of human commitment to survive. That is linked to Modernist fiction, in particular to V. Woolf’s moment of being and J. Joyce’s epiphany because they are significant examples for the brief and powerful possibility to be happy in life. Actually, all great artists share this necessary, intriguing point. From Latin writers to Shakespearian tragedies, from Leopardi’s poetry to Schopenhauer’s philosophy as well as from Ulysses to Clarissa Dalloway, the quest for a well-being has been conducted.

All that makes me be conscious of the hidden relation between great thoughts and the evident belonging to the same pattern.