Kristeva was born in Sliven, Bulgaria. Her parents were Christian. Her father was a church accountant. Kristeva and her sister attended a Francophone school run by Dominican nuns. Kristeva learned about the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. Kristeva went on to study at the University of Sofia. While a postgraduate there she got a research fellowship that let her move to France in December 1965, when she was 24. She continued her education at several French universities, studying under Lucien Goldmann and Roland Barthes, among other scholars. On August 2, 1967, Kristeva married the novelist Philippe Sollers, "né" Philippe Joyaux.