Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art by Julia Kristeva (review)

322 Books Lightning b! Lewis. The Aurora by Akasota. Airglom h! Young. Mirages by Fraser and Mach, AtmosphericHalos by Lynch, The Green Flash by O’Connell. The Theory of the Rainbow by Nussenzveig. The Glory by Bryant and Jarmie. The times when exact observation of nature was a task for the visual artist are past. But the wonders of nature are still sources of inspiration for concrete and abstract artists alike. These well-illustrated articles are certainly of interest for artists. A Combinatorial Introduction to Topology. Michael Henle. W. H. Freeman, Reading. England, 1979.310 pp., illus. f 10.80. ISBN: 0-71670083 -2. Reviewed by Christian Leruste’ The title should not be understood as indicating a narrow fanciful approach to a classical branch of mathematics. On the contrary. the conclusion one is drawn to after reading this book is that the combinatorial point of view is the one which gives the surest, quickest and simplest insight into topology, its scope and its methods. Of course it’s all to do with the fact that, historically, topology was born combinatorial, but the result is that it is thus possible to address the nonspecialist at the same time as the professional mathematician. which Michael Henle brilliantly achieves without confusing the one nor boring the other. He manages to cover a wide range of topics, from the theory of surfaces to vector fields and homology, in such a way that the reader who sets out seeking information on old favourites like the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. space-filling curves or the map colouring problem, will not only get that but acquire a genuine feeling of what is at work behind isolated properties and even encounter sophisticated results (e.g. the Jordan curve theorem or the Lefschetz fixed-point theorem) -with proofs. The style, proofs included, never becomes gratuitously technical. and in fact, as far as mathematical competence is concerned, there are hardly any prerequisites apart from an interest in the matter: the necessary concepts arise naturally, never introduced too early, or apriori. or too generally. A perfect example of this is given by homology. first defined for the plane. then for surfaces,then for higher-dimensional spaces,then with coefficients. etc.). This naturalness is greatly helped. if not induced, by the self-imposed restriction to 2- or at the most 3-dimensional spaces, and by the many excellent figures. Both characteristics should appeal to Leonardo readers. The exercisesare numerous, remarkably relevant and often very enjoyable. Now, the chapter on vector fields may be a little too descriptive (but then the differential side of it made it less amenable to the same exhaustive treatment as others). The few paragraphs on algebraic topology look more like an afterthought than an organic development. One or two printing errors are all the moreirritatingfor occurring in the pages on orientation. always a delicate matter. And, in the section on map-colouring. we’d love to beshown the mapon the Klein bottle which provides the one counter-example to Heawood’s conjecture. Still this is an excellent book, where much good knowledge is openly available, not hidden under thick layers ofjargon. And it’s fun to read. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Julia Kristeva. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1980. 305 pp.. illus. €8.95. ISBN: 0631 -12527-2. Reviewed by Elmer H.Duncan** This is a difficult book. It is difficult because just what the author is trying to do is not always clear. nor are the methods she uses to do it. To clarify, Julia Kristeva was, as the editor’s Introduction informs the reader, born in Bulgaria in 1941.In 1966,she went to Paris on a doctoral fellowship -and she simply remained there. She is currently Professor of Linguistics at the University of Paris VII. The present volume is a collection of her essays, covering a 10-year span. In her own Preface, Kristeva says the essays ‘. . . do not amount to either “art criticism” or “literary criticism”’ (p. viii). This would seem to depend on what is to be meant by ‘art criticism’. In most of the essays, artworks (principally novels and paintings) are discussed with the purpose of reaching greater...