An Austrian neurologist whose theories about the unconscious mind and human psychosexual development influence some of the central ideas explored in Kristeva's work.

A French psychoanalyst and philosopher who reinterpreted Freudian concepts and influenced Kristeva's analysis of subject development and reality as mediated by language.

A French novelist and physician whose work, particularly its themes of abjection and the grotesque, is analyzed in several chapters of Kristeva's book.

A British anthropologist whose insights into pollution, taboo, and religion significantly inform Kristeva's exploration of symbolic order and defilement.

A French anthropologist known for applying structuralist theory to cultural studies, whose work on food prohibitions and cultural structures is discussed in Kristeva's writing.

An avant-garde literary magazine that was a platform for structuralist, post-structuralist, and deconstructive essays, and to which Kristeva contributed, playing a key role in the literary debates of its era.

A Russian philosopher known for his concept of dialogic literature, whose theories on intertextuality provide early influence for Kristeva's work.