Revolution and Pathological Creativity: The Egyptian Model from a Kristevan Perspective

Abstract

This paper makes use of Kristeva's concepts of the revolution and the more recent one of revolt. While the first one relates the personal and the aesthetic with the social, the second one focuses solely on the psychic as it is represented in art and psychoanalysis. As the microcosmic leads necessary to the macrocosmic, an amalgamation between the two terms becomes more functional. The Egyptian Revolution is shown here as the perfect model of this aesthetic, political revolution where creativity burst in the form of death drive. The semiotic penetrates Tahrir Square and abjection becomes the quality of its tenuous borders.