Sacrificed Lives: Kristeva on Women and Violence [Paperback]

In this well-crafted and scholarly work, Reineke argues that an analysis of the contemporary culture of violence through the lens of gender reveals a sacrificial economy. Religious Studies Review

. . . handled with the kind of concise, cogent, and insightful criticism that readers of Reineke have come to expect . . . Women's Studies International Forum

By elaborating key notions of Kristeva in the context of her questions about violence, Reineke develops aspects of Kristeva's work that will interest not only students of Kristeva, but those who are interested in all forms of social violence, feminist theory, and women's issues as well. Tamsin Lorraine

Why did medieval women mystics starve themselves? Why were witches hunted, tortured, and killed? Why has the Christian West found maternal figures threatening? To answer these questions, Reineke advances a theory of sacrifice, inspired by Julia Kristeva and Ren? Girard, that attempts to account for women's special vulnerability to violence in Western culture.

Uses the work of Julia Kristeva as a touchstone to explore the nature of violence against women.

Martha J. Reineke is Associate Professor of Religion and Director of the Graduate Program in Women's Studies at the University of Northern Iowa.

Part I

Chapter 1 Introduction

I. Framing the Problem of Violence
II. Kristeva's Psychoanalytic Theory: A Helpful Resource for Feminists?
III. An Outline of Life-Sentences

Chapter 2 Kristeva in Context: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and Beyond

I. The Lacanian Context: Human Existence as a Practice of Absence
II. The Lacanian Context Subverted: Kristeva's Theory of the Unconscious
III. The Lacanian Context Enfleshed: Kristeva's Theory of Sacrifice
IV. A Critical Context: Kristeva and Feminist Theory
A. Kristeva and Social Constructionism
B. Kristeva and a Libidinal Economy

Chapter 3l!