REVOLT, SHE SAID

Revolt, as I understand it—psychic revolt, analytic revolt, artistic revolt—refers to a permanent state of questioning, of transformations, an endless probing of appearances.

— JULIA KRISTEVA

2-4.30pm LONG TABLE, Banqueting Hall

This Long Table discussion will be led by members of the Subjectivity and Feminisms Research Group at Chelsea College of Arts and joined by Mary Evans, Azadeh Fatehrad, Oriana Fox, Lana Locke, Trish Scott and Jennet Thomas. The event will take Julia Kristeva’s distinction between the terms “revolt” and “revolution” as a springboard to debate a perceived antagonism between activism and creativity. All audience members are encouraged to take up seats at the table and participate in the debate, based on Lois Weaver’s ‘Long Table’ Etiquette.*

“Revolt” is seen by Kristeva as a continuous process of exposing contradictions and undoing fixity. By contrast, she views “revolution” as being directed towards establishing a new political order that inevitably results in conformity. How might Kristeva’s concept of “revolt” offer hope to artists who are not necessarily activists, yet who are keen to effect change in attitudes towards the category of being ‘female’, a still marginalised position in patriarchal culture, the success of feminist movements notwithstanding. Or is a Kristevan process of “revolt” superfluous in an era of #MeToo?

* Conceived by performance artist Lois Weaver, the Long Table is an experimental open public forum that is a hybrid performance-installation-roundtable-discussion designed to facilitate dialogue through the gathering together of people with common interests. More info: http://www.split-britches.com/longtable/

** See pp. 99-110 and pp. 119-123 of Kristeva’s Revolt, She Said https://monoskop.org/images/6/68/Kristeva_Julia_Revolt_She_Said_2002.pdf

6-8.30pm CABARET, Canteen Annexe

Everyone’s welcome! Booking is essential as places are limited.

http://bit.ly/revolt-she-said