1
of
1
Hannah Arendt
Brief Description
We are still coming to terms with the controversial figure of Hannah Arendt. Interlacing her life and work, this book is an elegant, sophisticated biography brimming with historical and philosophical insight. Focusing on the theme of female genius, Julia Kristeva emphasizes three features of the philosopher's...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$4799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Hannah Arendt
$4799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
We're Celebrating Halloween with a Board Game Party!
It's been a little while since our last team board game night, so what better...
New Zealand Gothic and Some Wonderfully Atmospheric Novels from Aotearoa
We may be lacking in castles and moors, but we more than make up for...
What a Night! Inside Book Hero's Whirlwind ACOTAR Midnight Release
What a whirlwind the last 24 hours have been! I'm writing this running on approximately...
Liam's Halloween Spook-tacular
Our newest Bookstore Hero,Β Liam, is a self-diagnosed horror fanatic, with a love for both books...
The Team's Long Weekend Reading
With the long weekend upon us, the team is hopefully getting some time in the...
See moreWe are still coming to terms with the controversial figure of Hannah Arendt. Interlacing her life and work, this book is an elegant, sophisticated biography brimming with historical and philosophical insight.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
We are still coming to terms with the controversial figure of Hannah Arendt. Interlacing her life and work, this book is an elegant, sophisticated biography brimming with historical and philosophical insight.
Focusing on the theme of female genius, Julia Kristeva emphasizes three features of the philosopher's work. First, by exploring Arendt's critique of Saint Augustine and her biographical essay on Rahel Varnhagen, Kristeva accentuates Arendt's commitment to recounting lives and narration. Second, Kristeva reflects on Arendt's perspective on Judaism, anti-Semitism, and the "banality of evil." Finally, the biography assesses Arendt's intellectual journey, placing her enthusiasm for observing both social phenomena and political events in the context of her personal life.
Drawing on fragments of Arendt's correspondence with her longtime lover Martin Heidegger and her husband Heinrich Blucher, excerpts from her mother's Unser Kind (a diary tracking Hannah's formative years), and passages from Arendt's philosophical writings, Kristeva presents a luminous account of an essential thinker.
Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
View all-
Hebrew
For nearly two thousand years, Hebrew belonged to the realm of the sacred. A written liturgical language used primarily by rabbis and scholars, it was not spoken in everyday contexts. A revival process in the late nineteenth century brought Hebrew back into daily use, adapting sacred texts as the foundations for a new vernacular. A "mother tongue" emerged. Keren Mock...Paperback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Dostoyevsky, or The Flood of Language
Growing up in Bulgaria, Julia Kristeva was warned by her father not to read Dostoyevsky. βOf course, and as usual,β she recalls, βI disobeyed paternal orders and plunged into Dosto. Dazzled, overwhelmed, engulfed.β Kristeva would go on to become one of the most important figures in European intellectual lifeβand she would return over and over again to Dostoyevsky, still haunted...Paperback$3399Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Proust and the Sense of Time
Julia Kristeva presents a thoroughly original and compelling reading of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, first delivered at the 1992 T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures at Canterbury. Kristeva's first essay, "Proust and Time Embodied," takes a broadly psychoanalytical, linguistically sensitive approach to Proust's exploration of time and the operation of memory. Next, in "In Search of Madeline," she delves into Proust's...Paperback$6400Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Alterity and Transcendence
Internationally renowned as one of the great French philosophers of the twentieth century, the late Emmanuel Levinas remains a pivotal figure across the humanistic disciplines for his insistenceβagainst the grain of Western philosophical traditionβon the primacy of ethics in philosophical investigation. This first English translation of a series of twelve essays known as Alterity and Transcendence offers a unique glimpse...Paperback$11000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Chronos
As omnipresent as it is ungraspable, time has always inspired and eluded attempts to comprehend it. For the early Christians and the twenty-first-century world alike, how have past and future been woven into the present? In Chronos, a leading French historian ranges from Western antiquity to the Anthropocene, pinpointing the crucial turning points in our relationship to time. François Hartog...Paperback$6699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Subaltern Social Groups
Antonio Gramsci is widely celebrated as the most original political thinker in Western Marxism. Among the most central aspects of his enduring intellectual legacy is the concept of subalternity. Developed in the work of scholars such as Gayatri Spivak and Ranajit Guha, subalternity has been extraordinarily influential across fields of inquiry stretching from cultural studies, literary theory, and postcolonial criticism...Paperback$12500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
A German Officer in Occupied Paris
A German Officer in Occupied Paris by Ernst JΓΌnger offers a compelling glimpse into the life of one of twentieth-century Germany's most importantβand most controversialβwriters. Decorated for bravery in World War I and known for his acclaimed western front memoir, Storm of Steel, JΓΌnger was a prolific author who depicted war's horrors while simultaneously extolling its glories. As a Wehrmacht...Paperback$6099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Negotiations, 1972-1990
Part autobiography, part interview, and part essay, this text traces the intellectual journey of a man often acclaimed as one of the most important philosophers in France. A guide to Deleuze by Deleuze, it explains the life and work of this figure in contemporary philosophy, tying together the strands of his long and prolific career. This guide sets forth the...Paperback$6800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Tears of History
For many Jews, for more than a century, the United States has seemed to be a safe haven. There has been antisemitic prejudice, but nothing on the scale of the discrimination, persecution, pogroms, and genocide witnessed in Europe. White American ethnic violence has assailed many targets, but Jews have rarely been among them. Observing what he took to be an...Paperback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Belle Γpoque
The years before the First World War have long been romanticised as a zenith of French cultureβthe Belle Γpoque. The era is seen as the height of a lost way of life that remains emblematic of what it means to be French. In a vast range of texts and images, it appears as a carefree time full of joie de...Paperback$5699Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940β1945
In just three months in 1940, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France fell to the Nazis. The German occupation of Western Europe had begunβbut a brave few rose up in defiance. National resistance has long been celebrated in remembrances of World War II, depicted as making significant contributions to the defeat of Nazi Germany. However, the so-called army...Paperback$7599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
What Is Philosophy?
Called by many France's foremost philosopher, Gilles Deleuze is one of the leading thinkers in the Western World. His acclaimed works and celebrated collaborations with FΓ©lix Guattari have established him as a seminal figure in the fields of literary criticism and philosophy. The long-awaited publication of What Is Philosophy? in English marks the culmination of Deleuze's career. Deleuze and Guattari...Paperback$5099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780231223935
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 16 June 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Illustration: 4 halftones
Contributors:
- Translated by Ross Guberman
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 216.0mm
Weight: 300g
Pages: 280
About the Author
Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the UniversitΓ© de Paris VII. A renowned psychoanalyst, philosopher, and linguist, she has written dozens of books spanning semiotics, political theory, literary criticism, gender and sex, and cultural critique, as well as several novels and autobiographical works, published in English translation by Columbia University Press. Kristeva was the inaugural recipient of the Holberg International Memorial Prize in 2004 βfor innovative explorations of questions on the intersection of language, culture, and literature.β
Ross Guberman has translated several works by Julia Kristeva, including Melanie Klein.
Also by Julia Kristeva
View all-
Teresa, My Love
Mixing fiction, history, psychoanalysis, and personal fantasy, Teresa, My Love turns a past world into a modern marvel, following Sylvia Leclercq, a French psychoanalyst, academic, and incurable insomniac, as she falls for the sixteenth-century Saint Teresa of Avila and becomes consumed with charting her life. Traveling to Spain, Leclercq, Julia Kristeva's probing alter ego, visits the sites and embodiments of...Paperback$5299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Strangers to Ourselves
This book is concerned with the notion of the strangerβthe foreigner, outsider, or alien in a country and society not their ownβas well as the notion of strangeness within the self, a person's deep sense of being, as distinct from outside appearance and their conscious idea of self. Strangers to Ourselves begins with the personal and moves outward by examining...Paperback$4599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Dostoyevsky, or The Flood of Language
Growing up in Bulgaria, Julia Kristeva was warned by her father not to read Dostoyevsky. βOf course, and as usual,β she recalls, βI disobeyed paternal orders and plunged into Dosto. Dazzled, overwhelmed, engulfed.β Kristeva would go on to become one of the most important figures in European intellectual lifeβand she would return over and over again to Dostoyevsky, still haunted...Paperback$3399Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Proust and the Sense of Time
Julia Kristeva presents a thoroughly original and compelling reading of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, first delivered at the 1992 T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures at Canterbury. Kristeva's first essay, "Proust and Time Embodied," takes a broadly psychoanalytical, linguistically sensitive approach to Proust's exploration of time and the operation of memory. Next, in "In Search of Madeline," she delves into Proust's...Paperback$6400Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Murder in Byzantium
In this absorbing, suspenseful novel, Julia Kristeva combines social satire, medieval history, philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and autobiography within a gruesome murder mystery. Murder in Byzantium deftly moves from eleventh-century Europe, wracked by the turbulence of the First Crusade, to the sun-dappled, cultural wasteland of present-day Santa Varvara, threatened by religious cults, gangs, and a serial killer on the loose. This...Paperback$4199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Samurai
Julia Kristeva's dazzling fictional debut is an intellectual adventure, full of vitality, sensuousness, and sustained lyricism. Reminiscent of The Mandarins, Simone de Beauvoir's 1954 masterpiece, The Samurai brilliantly reconstructs a pivotal era of postwar French historyβParis in the late 1960sβand at the same time records the political disillusionment and ferment of a generation. In a brisk narrative spanning three continents,...Paperback$4199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Desire in Language
Desire in Language traces the path of an investigation, extending over a period of ten years, into the semiotics of literature and the arts. But the essays of Julia Kristeva in this volume, though they often deal with literature and art, do not amount to either "literary criticism" or "art criticism." Their concern, writes Kristeva, "remains intratheoretical: they are based...Paperback$4599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Language: The Unknown
In this wide-ranging introduction, Julia Kristeva presents the evolution and emergence of linguistics. For Kristeva, the object of linguistic investigation is not "What is language?" but rather "How can language be thought?" In a series of carefully documented analyses, she examines the links between philosophical speculation and linguistic practice. She traces postmodern linguistic theory back to its roots, using sources...Paperback$4599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
The Enchanted Clock
In the Palace of Versailles, there is a fabulous golden clock, made for Louis XV by the king's engineer, Claude-SimΓ©on Passemant. The astronomical clock shows the phases of the moon and the movements of the planets, and it will tell timeβhours, minutes, seconds, and even sixtieths of secondsβuntil the year 9999. Passemant's clock brings the nature of time into sharp...Paperback$4199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Nations Without Nationalism
Underlying Julia Kristeva's Nations Without Nationalism is the idea that otherness-whether it be ethnic, religious, social, or political-needs to be understood and accepted in order to guarantee social harmony. This book is an impassioned plea for tolerance and for commonality, aimed at a world brimming over with racism and xenophobia. Responding to the rise of neo-Nazi groups in Germany and...Paperback$2899Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Possessions
This sequel to Julia Kristeva's celebrated allegory The Old Man and the Wolves returns to the corrupt seaside resort of a mythical town, where the boundaries between East and West, civilization and barbarism, and good and evil are erased. Part mystery, part meditation, this engrossing tale features the return of Parisian amateur detective and newspaper reporter Stephanie Delacour (Kristeva's alter...Paperback$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Powers of Horror
Julia Kristeva offers an extensive and profound consideration of the nature of abjection. Drawing on Freud and Lacan, she analyses the nature of attitudes toward repulsive subjects and examines the function of these topics in the writings of Louis-Ferdinand CΓ©line, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and other authors. In Powers of Horror, Kristeva delves into the psychological and cultural dimensions of...Paperback$4599Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
More from Biography & Memoir
View all-
New ReleaseOne Helluva Ride
"This book is about where I came from, what I fought against, and what I chose formyself. Fame can blur the truth; this is my attempt to bring it back into focus." A legendary actor and Hollywood Icon whose five-decade career spans film, television,and producing, Michael Douglas has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, fiveGolden Globes, a Primetime Emmy,...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseA Life in Lyrics
Freddie Mercury was one of the greatest showmen of the twentieth century. With his unparalleled voice and searing on-stage energy, he was a great pretender, a killer queen and a champion of the world. But behind the glamour lived a musician and lyricist talented beyond measure, and the creative force behind one of the most culturally significant and musically diverse...Hardback$5000Elsewhere:$6500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseIs It Too Late to Make a Run for It?
The book we've all been waiting for, national treasure Judi Dench opens her almost inexhaustible collection of memories from life and acting. Join Judi as she lifts the curtain on cherished memories and hilarious anecdotes from seven decades of performing with some of the greatest names in theatre. Step behind the camera as she reprises her most famous roles, such...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
Drive
A thrilling, candid and uncompromising memoir covering over twenty-years at the pinnacle of Formula 1,Β DriveΒ sees Christian Horner, one of the sportβs biggest characters, take readers into the heart of Red Bull Racing as he reflects on his extraordinary career. For over twenty years Christian Horner built and ran Red Bull Racing, transforming a rookie team acquired for Β£1 into one...Paperback$3999Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseSwan Song
Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles β available to pre-order now. βWhen asked, βWhat was it like, growing up with Diana?β, my first thought is always, But I donβt know what it was like not to grow up with herβ¦β In September 1997, Charles Spencer stood in Westminster Abbey before...Hardback$5499Elsewhere:$6500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseFictional Selves
From the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Sex and the City comes a candid and deeply personal memoir. In this highly anticipated memoir, the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City and more shares his utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood, his battles with fear and...Hardback$4799Elsewhere:$6000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Steps
The long-awaited memoir from a true Hollywood icon. We know Sylvester Stallone as one of the most revered actors, writers, and directors of all time, yet his life story is every bit as dramatic, intense, and inspiring as his greatest creations on screen. Bringing together a no-holds-barred account of a fascinating life with messages of hope, positivity, and resilience, in...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Home Again
Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoirΒ Home Again.This is more than a rock story.Β Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it.Β From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
18% offDogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Famesick
Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgunΒ wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through herΒ journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
21% offThis Angry Pen of Mine
This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...Hardback$5800Elsewhere:$8999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Signed Copy
Stakes
Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the authorβs bestselling memoirΒ Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampireβs badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram StokerβsΒ Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Biography & Memoir lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listBiography & Memoir
Memorable Memoirs of Kiwi Women
Looking for an amazing local memoir of one of the many amazing women here in Aotearoa? Here's a great list, featuring some...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Lucky You're Tough]()
Lizzy's listBiography & Memoir
Memorable Memoirs of Kiwi Men
Looking for an amazing local memoir of one of the many amazing men here in Aotearoa? Here's a great list, featuring some...View the list
