Discursive praxis and a return to the maternal body

Abstract

This essay examines Julia Kristeva's work on semiotics in relation to Mary Daly's project to reclaim language for woman's experience. It proceeds with an outline of Kristeva's theory of literary genre and then applies it to the work of the Mary Daly. Daly, a radical, separatist-feminist theologian-philosopher, is evolving her own "language" or discourse in a conscious attempt to challenge the expression of gender and identity in patriarchal culture. The essay concludes that there is significant theoretical agreement between Kristevan theory and Daly's own understanding of the production of text.