Julia Kristeva’s Maternal Passions

Abstract

This article critically engages Julia Kristeva’s latest work on maternal passion as an antidote to what she calls “feminine fatigue.”  Oliver elaborates, criticizes, and expands Kristeva’s view that maternity can be a model for thinking about passion and its relation to creativity and even to ethics.  She relates Kristeva’s thinking about feminine fatigue to contemporary feminism in the United States.