Discursive praxis and a return to the maternal body (Challenging the expression of gender and identity in a patriarchal culture through dialogical discourse)

This essay examines Julia Kristeva's work on semiotics in relation to Mary Daly's project to reclaim language for woman's experience. It proceeds with an outline of Kristeva's theory of literary genre and then applies it to t he work of the Mary Daly. Daly, a radical, separatist-feminist theologian-p hilosopher, is evolving her own "language" or discourse in a conscious atte mpt to challenge the expression of gender and identity in patriarchal cultu re. The essay concludes that there is significant theoretical agreement bet ween Kristevan theory and Daly's own understanding of the production of tex t.