Strangers to Ourselves

I read this in the original French back in the early 90s. It seemed an odd little book, uncomfortably poetic and "arty" from my anglo perspective. But it changed my perception of how people, and groups of people, relate with each other; to the point that I think of it or mention it quite frequently. I should probably re-read it! I don't know if she covers the same material in any other of her books, but I found that this was a simple, focused read that was interesting and very worthwhile.

Very accessible text in comparison to Kristeva's other work. But mostly a broad overview of foreigners in European history--not the most insightful or rewarding text, by any means.

The most interesting sections of this work are the earliest chapters; Kristeva seems to run out of steam and stop abruptly once she begins to discuss foreignness and strangeness in contemporary culture. The writing is also very abstract (perhaps more so because it is a translation); this particular book is probably only interesting to a student of literature who is critically concerned with the figure of the Stranger in fiction and legends. I don't recommend picking this book up simply out of curiousity.

Unconvincing and messy...I wonder if it's just a bad translation - there are places where the word choice just seems that way. Consider how many translations of the Bible exist and how varied they are, and it becomes obvious that there are many ways to translate something.