Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art by Julia Kristeva
This study proposes and tests theories involving first the origin and development of the novel, and second what the author has defined as a signifying practice in poetic language and pictorial works. She rejects the postulates of Freudian ego psychology, and argues the existence in language of a split subject divided between unconscious and conscious motivations; that is, between physiological processes and social constraints.