A Study Of Kristeva’s Melancholia Poetics

In Kristeva’s vast theoretical system,the theory of melancholia is an outstanding achievement in her psychoanalytic literature.Kristeva’s theory of melancholia began in the 1970s,matured in the late 1980s,and is concentrated in Black Sun:Depression and Melancholia.It is a bold exploration of her active search for a way out of the spiritual crisis faced by subjects in modern society.This paper examines the theoretical structure and textual analysis of Black Sun:Depression and Melancholia to grasp Kristeva’s poetics of melancholia and explore the theoretical and practical values embedded in it.The first chapter traces the origins of Kristeva’s poetics theory of melancholia.The concept of melancholia has a long history of development in the West,dating back to ancient Greece,and is the result of a combination of philosophy,literature,psychology,and medicine.Psychoanalytic theory is an important methodology in the poetics of melancholia,and Kristeva’s theory of melancholia takes Freud’s melancholia and mourning as its starting point while being influenced by Klein’s theory of object relations,with more emphasis on the influence of the’mother’.The second chapter explains the theoretical content of Kristeva’s poetics of melancholia.Melancholia is a large psychological crisis faced by subjects in modern society,and Kristeva discusses the mechanisms of melancholia formation within the framework of psychoanalysis,examining the discursive characteristics of the melancholic.She points out that the sublimation of melancholia has both psychoanalytic and literary-artistic implications,and then transitions from discourse analysis to literary analysis,offering the possibility of literary art as a way of overcoming melancholia in addition to the psychoanalytic approach.She discusses the connection between melancholia and literary art and attempts to use literary art to solve melancholia.The third chapter deals with the critical practice of Kristeva’s melancholia poetics.Kristeva discusses the literary and artistic creations of four writers and artists.The effect of death presented in Holbein’s painting The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb is the visual impact of melancholia,the violation of which can only be overcome through identification with death.Nerval draws his strength from the sonnet metaphor,sublimating the melancholia brought on by death in poetry.Dostoevsky’s melancholia is rooted in the omnipresence of suffering,and he uses forgiveness as a way of salvation to counteract it in his writing.Finally,Kristeva relates female depression to the work of the novelist Duras,pointing out the sense of suffering and the catharsis effect that Duras’ novels bring to the reader.The fourth chapter develops and evaluates Kristeva’s poetics of melancholia.Kristeva raises personal melancholia to a national level,proposing a rebellion against the ills of modern politics and advocating the freedom to question oneself Kristeva’s melancholia poetics provided a new theoretical perspective for literary analysis and had a wide impact on the literary and artistic world.Therefore,it is necessary to pay attention to the value and influence of Kristeva’s melancholia poetics.