Julia Kristeva
June 3, 2025 Jeffrey Berman
The chapter examines Sylvia Leclercq's fascination with mysticism in Julia Kristeva's novel about Saint Teresa of Ávila. Sylvia, a psychoanalyst and academic, explores female mysticism through the historical figure of Teresa. Kristeva presents a love story about the Counter-Reformation's most enigmatic woman, where Teresa believed in a mystical unity overcoming the split between self and other. Sylvia explains that in Sufi thought, immanence and transcendence are not mutually exclusive, an insight Teresa grasped in the sixteenth century that remains relevant today. Teresa becomes a role model for Sylvia in pursuing a fulfilling life, though Sylvia never experiences mystical states herself.