Communication and ‘revolt’

‘Revolt’ is usually associated with ‘rebellion’, or ‘revolution’ in a political sense, and at an intuitivelevel there is certainly a connection or similarity among these three concepts. The psychoanalyticaltheorist and philosopher, Julia Kristeva, has however developed a notion of ‘revolt’ (and, relatedto it, of ‘revolution’) that goes far beyond the common understanding of the term. Moreover, in herunderstanding of the concept, ‘revolt’ may indeed be a ‘communicational’ prerequisite for contemporary‘globalised’ society to break out of an invidious (and potentially violent) standoff between a dominantworld culture, subject to the logic of the market, on the one hand, and a fundamentalist ideologicalreaction to it, on the other. Kristeva points the way to a creative enlivening of individuals’ lives, aswell as of society at large, through her passionate elaboration on the potential for ‘revolution’ inlanguage and communication, and also her development of the notion of ‘revolt’ as a legacy ofWestern culture – a legacy which is under threat in the present ‘culture of the spectacle’.