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Virtual Class: Abject — 18 Comments

  1. While searching for notes on the abject, I found one article that discusses how definition of the abject, and how it refers to the antithesis of Lacan’s “object of desire.” The work continues to talk about the abject in the fact that it represents a level of fear which comes from recognition of something that is classified as “other”. The cited example is a corpse, as we recognize it as having a human shape, but also see it as an other through its association with our own demise.
    This then can be applied to several tenets of the Gothic literature we have read; for instance, Medea in “The Hungry Woman” can be classified using the abject. The reason Medea is terrifying and creepy is because she is recognized as both an other and a similar; she is an other / witch through her actions, but remains a person through her motives.
    The article even discusses how this use of the abject in the literature works. The writer states, “To experience the abject in literature carries with it a certain pleasure but one that is quite different from the dynamics of desire. Kristeva associates this aesthetic experience of the abject, rather, with poetic catharsis: “‘an impure process that protects from the abject only by dint of being immersed in it.'” In this way, one may note the use of abject in Gothic literature, and how it continues to inform our readings.

    Works Cited:
    Felluga, Dino. “Modules on Kristeva: On the Abject.” Introductory Guide to Critical Theory.Jan 31, 2011. Purdue U. Feb 21, 2011. .

  2. While searching for a formal definition of abstract, I ran across a personal blog with a post concerning both abstraction and the uncanny. The author of the blog, Jennifer, states that with any analysis of “gothic” one will inevitably come across the terms “abstract”, “grotesque”, and “uncanny”. She also states that these are all elements of gothic and each contribute to its meaning. For her sources, Jennifer draws on psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva and her seminal essay entitled Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. She states that “abjection is primarily concerned with societal taboos surrounding the materiality of the body, and the horror that arises from exposure to bodily excretions such as blood, pus and feces”. From this definition found in the article combined with what we discussed in class, I assume that the definition of abject is anything we as a society fear that also has to do with the body. This includes, but is not exclusive to, death. From this, one can deem The Hungry Woman along with other gothic novels to be abject due to the fact that the element of death is present, and we as a society deem it as taboo to talk about it because we are afraid of realizing our own eventual demise.

    Works Cited : http://jenniferlinton.com/2010/09/02/the-abject-the-grotesque-and-the-uncanny-an-excerpt/

  3. Julia Kristeva defines the abject as, “ the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other. The primary example for what causes such a reaction is the corpse (which traumatically reminds us of our own materiality); however, other items can elicit the same reaction: the open wound, shit, sewage, even the skin that forms on the surface of warm milk” (Dino). Yet, even though we are repulsed by the abject, we are also drawn to it or even desire it. It acts as a catharsis. In a perverse way, we are drawn to the abject as a way to protect us from it. Literature gives the reader a safe way to experience this. It reminds me of Helena Maria Viramontes story, “The Moths”. In it, the protagonist, a young girl, bathes her recently deceased grandmother as a way to purify and show her respect. What might be mildly uncomfortable for the reader turns into repulsion, because the granddaughter gets in the bathtub with her grandmother to wash her. It’s the close proximity to death that creates this disturbing, skin crawling feeling. She also describes her aged body in great detail. Yet, it gives the reader catharsis to experience death and its attendant feelings from a distance. The grandmother is the abject body. The reader might feel revulsion, but we also know that we will meet the same fate. If things go “well”, our corpse will also be the aged body.
    Works Cited
    Dino, Felluga. “”Modules on Kristeva: On the Abject.” Introductory Guide to Critical Theory.” 21 February 2014. Purdue University. 2014. .

  4. while researching the term “abject” I came across and article entitled “Kristeva’s theory of Abjection Works in Relation to the Fairy Tale and Post-Colonial novel: Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and Keri Hulme’s ‘The Bone People'”. I found the definition of abject given to be very interesting. The author first gives the traditional definition of abject “brought low, miserable; craven, degraded, despicable, self abasing.” She then brings up situations in which abjection would be expressed in order to give this definition some context. Some of these situations include, “religious abhorrence, incest, women’s bodies, human sacrifice, bodily waste, death, cannibalism, murder, decay, and perversion.” She discusses the idea that although the abject is repulsive, we are drawn to it at the same time. I think that this is very typical of the gothic genre. Although the ideas and situations expressed in the gothic are often very shocking and disturbing, we as readers are still interested in them and often want to know more.

    works cited:
    Pentony, Samantha. “Kristeva’s theory of Abjection Works in Relation to the Fairy Tale and Post-Colonial novel: Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and Keri Hulme’s ‘The Bone People'”. Deep South. 1996. octago.ac.nz. Feb. 21,2014.

  5. “Abject”, as told by Elisabeth Bronfen in “The Encyclopedia of the Gothic”, is cowardice. The word is used in Gothic literature to cast off someone who is degrading, miserable, or submissive. It is said to be derived from the Latin word abicere.
    “Abicere”, similarly, is defined as abandon, debase, sell too cheaply, and throw or cast away.

    Citing:
    Bronfen, Elizabeth. “Blackwell Reference Online.” Abjection : The Encyclopedia of the Gothic :. Blackwell Reference Online, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. .

    Mahony, Kevin. “Latin definition for: abicio, abicere, abjeci, abjectus.” Latin Definition for: abicio, abicere, abjeci, abjectus (ID: 80). LatDict, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014. .

  6. While looking for articles that mentioned the word abject, I had a bit of difficulty finding an article that mentioned the word. Honestly, I didn’t know what the word meant. I stumbled upon Michael Owen’s blog and it gave a brief definition of the word. ‘“The Abject” refers to supposed unsavory aspects of life, especially concerning bodily functions.” This left me puzzle and didn’t really answer the question about what abject was. After reading more, I grabbed the concept of abject. It is something unusual, unpleasant or as the article mentioned “loathing”. Abject art has a gothic element to it. Again, it is out of the norm, it isn’t the normal standard of beauty, it is odd and perhaps disturbing. “Renaissance painters expressed a fascination for blood but it wasn’t until the Dada movement of the 20th century that the fascination with transgression and taboo made the Abject Art movement possible.” Anything having to do with goth is gory and strange, which perfectly describes these art pieces, which many represent body parts in gruesome ways. The abject artists that are described in the article seem a bit mad and passionate, which reminds me of a gothic element that is described in literature, sort of mad scientists who experiment. An artist described in the article committed suicide and another would cut himself and act inappropriate in public. Maybe their art projects drove them a bit insane, and drew them to a darker and edgier side. From the looks of it, abject and gothic go hand in hand.

    Works Cited
    Owens, Michael. “The Horrors of the Abject.” Michael Owens. N.p., 10 May 2012. Web. .

  7. When discussing the abject/abjection in the Introduction to “The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction,” Jerrold E. Hogle notes that “Whatever threatens us [such as ghosts, grotesques]with anything like the betwist-and-between, even dead-and-alive…we throw off or “‘abject'” into defamiliarized manifestations, which we henceforth fear and desire because they both threaten to reengulf us and promise to return us to our primal orgins” (7). “All that is abjected is thrown under in another fashion: cast off into a figure or figures criminalized or condemned by people in authority and thus subjected to (again, thrown under)their gaze and the patterns of social normalcy they enforce. The process of abjection, then, is as thoroughly social and cultural as it is personal” (7).

    We fear what and who we do not fully understand. This “in between” state is misunderstood,leading to condemnation. It is interesting to see this definition and how it pertains to Gothic literature, but also with themes discussed in Chicano Studies.

    Work Cited:

    Hogle, Jerrold E. “Introduction: The Gothic in western culture.” The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Ed. Jerrold E. Hogle. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 1-20.Print.

  8. According to Julia Kristeva in her book, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, the abject is something, often related to the body and bodily functions, rejected from culture or mainstream society because of repulsion, fear, and what it represents. She cites an example as a corpse, something thrust from society because of disgust, and the reminder that we all will die. This is very relevant to the gothic; many recognizable examples can be found in classic gothic literature. In Frankenstein, the revived super-cadaver that is the Frankenstein monster is feared because of his immense strength and suggested ruthlessness, considered repulsive because he is made of corpses, and represents the horror of what it means for man to play God, and all that that implicates. Another example can be found in Hyde in The Mysterious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Hyde is feared because he is a murderer and indulger, he is repulsive because of his appearance and his demeanor, and he represents the evil in all people.
    The other element of the abject is the somewhat twisted fascination with it: “It beseeches, worries, and fascinates desire, which, nevertheless, does not let itself be seduced” (Kristeva, 1). This relates to a previous blog post in which I commented my definition of the gothic centered on the idea that “the Gothic so often appears to delight in transgression” (Smith, 3). This leads me to believe that perhaps we are fascinated by the abject not only because it incites us to feel repulsed, but also because of what the abject communicates. As Kristeva says, the abject has a sense of symbolism, as it reminds us of or represents something. If we recognize ourselves in the abject, we are intrigued, but also frightened, for that means we are somewhat afraid of and repulsed by ourselves.

    Kristeva, Julie. , Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York, Columbia University Press 1982.

    Smith, Andrew. Gothic Literature.
    Edinburgh, GBR: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

  9. The abject is an essential aspect of the Gothic, in all its creative forms. Although I have not discussed this term in any literature classes, I do have an understanding of its meaning and applications from a visual arts perspectives. While studying American art, I encountered the troubling yet alluring works of Edward Kienholz. In his haunting installation “State Hospital” the artist presents a squalid, almost amorphous patient laying in a gesture of desolated surrender, tied up to a imposing, metallic bed, waiting for his uncertain fate. In the bed above, a manifestation of his thoughts, an exact replica of the scene below, sits encircled by a dialogue bubble. Abandoned in that dingy room, this men embodies the haunting aspect of the abject. This Gothic element forces us to confront the delicacy of our bodies, our irrevocable mortality and the divide between the part of us that is susceptible to time, sickness and pain (our bodies) and the essence we hope lives on (our soul/spirit/intellect). The abject produces a sickening realization, an encounter with the reality we choose to ignore. While examining Julia Kristeva’s essay on this subject, Mike Walter notes that the abject disrupts the normalcy of our identity to illuminate concepts of selfhood and how they can be distorted when confronted with the hostility of the human experience. He states that “the abject is a central waypoint on the definition of the relation of the personal ego with the greater world; it is not just the presence of disgust or horror, but that entire gamut of suffering we encounter” . Although this article focuses on the literary implications of this term, we can see how the abject can also be vividly portrayed through visual means. Kienholz’s work in its entirety reflects on this taboo subject of the fear of our own deteriorating physicality, best exemplified in a corpse, and the inevitable recognition of the limiting effect of our body, since it is a decaying vessel, on our true essence.
    This understanding of the abject is important because it informs standard aspects of gothic literature. One could argue that the scientific fascination with overcoming immortality- a corrupting tasks that is present in several gothic works including Frankestein-is partially derived from the emotional response we experience, as Kristeva argues, when confronted with a corpse or any bodily secretions.

    Works Cited:

    Walker, Mike. “JULIA KRISTEVA’S ABJECTION: A LECTURE ON THE POWERS OF HORROR”. Coal Hill Blog. October 26, 2011.
    http://www.coalhillreview.com/?p=3423

    Kienholz, Edward. State Hospital.

    http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lde30m6WkE1qzn4kzo1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI6WLSGT7Y3ET7ADQ&Expires=1393118713&Signature=PYbS1CSTHDDwgucIXFAAQT0ztOw%3D#_=_

  10. The abject is an essential aspect of the Gothic, in all its creative forms. Although I have not discussed this term in any literature classes, I do have an understanding of its meaning and applications from a visual arts perspectives. While studying American art, I encountered the troubling yet alluring works of Edward Kienholz. In his haunting installation “State Hospital” the artist presents a squalid, almost amorphous patient laying in a gesture of desolated surrender, tied up to a imposing, metallic bed, waiting for his uncertain fate. In the bed above, a manifestation of his thoughts, an exact replica of the scene below, sits encircled by a dialogue bubble. Abandoned in that dingy room, this men embodies the haunting aspect of the abject. This Gothic element forces us to confront the delicacy of our bodies, our irrevocable mortality and the divide between the part of us that is susceptible to time, sickness and pain (our bodies) and the essence we hope lives on (our soul/spirit/intellect). The abject produces a sickening realization, an encounter with the reality we choose to ignore. While examining Julia Kristeva’s essay on this subject, Mike Walter notes that the abject disrupts the normalcy of our identity to illuminate concepts of selfhood and how they can be distorted when confronted with the hostility of the human experience. He states that “the abject is a central waypoint on the definition of the relation of the personal ego with the greater world; it is not just the presence of disgust or horror, but that entire gamut of suffering we encounter” . Although this article focuses on the literary implications of this term, we can see how the abject can also be vividly portrayed through visual means. Kienholz’s work in its entirety reflects on this taboo subject of the fear of our own deteriorating physicality, best exemplified in a corpse, and the inevitable recognition of the limiting effect of our body, since it is a decaying vessel, on our true essence.
    This understanding of the abject is important because it informs standard aspects of gothic literature. One could argue that the scientific fascination with overcoming immortality- a corrupting tasks that is present in several gothic works including Frankestein-is partially derived from the emotional response we experience, as Kristeva argues, when confronted with a corpse or any bodily secretions.

    Works Cited:

    Walker, Mike. “JULIA KRISTEVA’S ABJECTION: A LECTURE ON THE POWERS OF HORROR”. Coal Hill Blog. October 26, 2011.
    http://www.coalhillreview.com/?p=3423

  11. One particular definition I found of abject was in the oxford dictionary, “extremely bad, unpleasant, and degrading: completely without pride or dignity; self-abasing” were some of the descriptions.

    Laurie Essig discusses what it is like to be an “abject lesbian” in her book “Lesbians and Work.” She writes that
    “the abject is what can not be seen or mentioned, but always comes back to haunt us” (105).

    She also mentions an interesting perspective on how other see and define lesbians. She writes about herself and other lesbians like her that “we are ghost who haunt the edges of the heterosexual imaginary as fantasy (we are just waiting for the right man to show up and give us what we need) or nightmare (we hate and want to castrate men).

    I think this idea can be loosely related to Madea and Luna. Though Lesbians, like all marginalized people, are much more than their stereotypes, I do think that that Madea and Luna reinforce those stereotypes in some ways.

    In a sense, Madea, is “waiting for the right man.” Weather that be a women, who is carries herself like a man, or an actual man like her ex-husband. However, at the same time
    She hates both of them. She hates Luna for being apart of what causes her destruction and also hates her ex because he is trying to take Choc-Moo from her. She describes how Choc-Moo is turning to her enemy (her husband) to turn him into a man.

    In many ways, I feel very sad for Madea. She seems to have been surrounded by so much love yet she could never accept any of it. At one point her husband loved her, Luna loved her, and her son loved her; but somehow she was still chasing something.

    Work Cited: Eissig, Laurie. “Lesbians and Work: The Advantages and Disadvantages of ‘Comfortable Shoes.” Phalis Envy.
    http://books.google.com/booksid=SSvcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=abject+lesbians&source=bl&ots=Jj0KsWKmDX&sig=L_YlXNTJcPHjnHdMNeLojUCskl0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lxYIU6TFN9DCoASX8ICYAg&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=abject%20lesbians&f=false

  12. On the blog below, the author states that although the idea of the abject was developed by Julia Kristeva, this concept existed way before she came up with it. It was a bit difficult for me to understand this concept. However, the author for this blog post used the diary of Anne Frank as an example. As someone who experienced the Holocaust, Anne Frank wrote about all this in her diary. Anne and her family were able to hide from Nazis but were later on found. “Anne’s most direct and soul-wrenching encounter with the abject occurs after the narrative of her diary ends, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where she would die, but the fact that her story has come to signify the extent of Nazi crimes and the knowledge of Anne’s terrible ultimate end cause abjection to press heavily on us as we move through the years that she recorded.” This is an example of the abject in literature because as a reader, it can be difficult and uncomfortable to read this. It is something that can’t be forgotten once it is read.

    “Potential for Progress: Abjection and Literature.” Critical Theory. N.p., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.

  13. Julia Kristeva, seems to be the internets supreme authority on the “Abject” as many of the replies have dealt with her work, and I too stumbled upon her work titled The “Powers of Horror.”According to Julia Kristeva in the ‘Powers of Horror’, the abject refers to the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other. The primary example for what causes such a reaction is the corpse (which traumatically reminds us of our own materiality); however, other items can elicit the same reaction: the open wound, shit, sewage, even the skin that forms on the surface of warm milk.” If we take this summary, that I was able to find on the Purdue University website and compare it to say the Webster’s definition which defines the ‘Abject’ as

    “: extremely bad or severe

    : very humble : feeling or showing shame

    : very weak : lacking courage or strength”

    We get a sense of what this word stands for. It seems to try to explain the emotion that is evoked in humans when a human is met with a revolting or terrifying experience of which

  14. in which* the human experiences a moment of belittling. By this I mean the experience causes a terrifying realization of a say for example, using the corpse, our mortality. This is interesting, because seeing that most people would see a corpse simply in a revolting manner, unpacking the imagery, could make you come to the realization that we as humans are mortal, that we have a set time to experience the world, this corpse could suddenly cause you to think of your own death, giving you an eerie and horrfying experience. This experience is what I think Kristeva is getting at.

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abject

    Felluga, Dino. “Modules on Kristeva: On the Abject.” Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Date of last update, which you can find on the home page. Purdue U. Date you accessed the site. .

  15. I am posting my “uncanny” post to “abject” because it wasn’t working on the other:

    I found a great website about the development of the literary term “uncanny” and the psychological implications discovered by Freud. The foundations of uncanny can be stemmed from the expectations of a society’s norms. Subcultures and countercultures emerge from the fact that individuals or groups of people cannot meet the expectations a culture presents them. Oftentimes, these people carry a negative connotation because of their differences. Sigmund Freud developed the term uncanny as “a notion of both familiarity and threat manifesting through the same person, object or event” (The Uncanny Culture). This can be compared to people representing the objection to society’s norms. This concept shows, in actuality, that things are “nothing new or alien, but something that is familiar and old fashioned in the mind and which has become alienated from it through process of repression” (The Uncanny Culture).
    In literature, uncanny works as a concept of doubles or a distorted mirror that takes something familiar and shows another aspect. Oftentimes, uncanny is associated with Gothic Literature in subjects of “man’s attitude toward death, female sexuality and a concept known as doubling” and present bizarre and grotesque themes opposing the “pleasantries of mainstream” (The Uncanny Culture). The work of Edgar Allen Poe oftentimes presents the macabre into his mysterious stories. He also uses the concept of the uncanny in many of his stories including, The Fall of the House of Usher. The story centers around an old mansion with characteristics similar to that of a person, especially with “eye-like windows”. Two twins reside in the house, Roderick and Madeline. The mansion is surrounded by an eerie lake that has mystical energy. All of this imagery plays on the notion of the uncanny and doubling attached to the supernaturally gothic. The twins share a similar affliction of mental illness but also a tight bond that seems strange to the people around them. The windows and mirrors represented in the story create reflections of a distorted nature. This toys with the way objects can be seen normally and how they can be seen abnormally in different settings. The lake holds a reflection of something in nature that can be skewed into something gloomy and unsettling. Poe is a great example of an author in Gothic literature playing up the notion of the uncanny.

    Works Cited:
    “Freud’s Concept of the Uncanny”. The Uncanny Culture. N.P., N.d., Web. 21 Feb. 2014. .

  16. In class we discussed how abject refers to sadness, weakness, and helplessness. The generic definition coming from the Merriam-Webster dictionary says abject is sunk to or existing in a low state or condition. Another given meaning is expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit. According to the article, “the abject refers to the human reaction to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other.” The article goes on to give causes for such reaction and feelings: a corpse, open wound, sewage, to name a few. Now this article gives a more precise definition with some context behind the term that offers clarity. The article goes in depth into the meaning of the abject. The author continues to say the abject marks a “primal repression,” one that precedes the establishment of the subject’s relation to its objects of desire and of representation. Hence, these descriptions of the meaning of the abject from the article and definitions definitely coincide with elements of the gothic.

    Works Cited: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/psychoanalysis/kristevaabject.html
    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abject

  17. The Abject is a literary technique similar to the notion of the uncanny. Abject plays on the idea of an individual or situation containing themes of “decay and madness”. I decided to dissect an example of abject literature by exploring Thomas Bernhard’s novel Gargoyles. Verstörung was the original title and when translated in English, means “Confusion” or “Disturbance” but the American publisher chose “Gargoyles” instead.
    The story takes place in the rural countryside of Stryia, where a father takes his scholarly son around to explore the “difficult district” as a method for his studies. The young son narrates the story as they travel around to observe the decay of the humanity around them. Their travels take them to a local inn where the owner’s wife has been murdered by “one of the drunken miners who frequented” there, as well as to a nearby castle which houses a “suicidal aristocrat who mourns his own son’s self-exile”. These disturbing encounters subject the young ambitious man to the world of brutality and savagery, or gargoyles: “These gargoyles live, if it can be called that, in abject, isolated otherness”.
    The father explains to his sons that we all have two sides and one seeks to destroy the other: 
“Every day I completely built myself up, and completely destroy myself”. This story truly encapsulates what the the abject means to literature and specifically in Gothic literature. The heightened sense of madness reflected on a cleansed and pure mind make it all the more disturbing because of the implications of possibility.

    Works Cited:
    Turner, Edwin. “Gargoyles, Thomas Bernhard’s Philosophical Novel of Abject Madness”. Biblioklept. N.p. 27 Sep. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

  18. I was drawn to this particular analysis of the word “abject” as I found it to be very relatable. During my research of the word abject I found it a very difficult concept to wrap my mind around as it has a quite broad definition. Yeraldyn cleverly created a tangible way to interpret the word by applying it to gothic art and literature which allows one to visualize the word as well as relate the word to the gothic aspect of our course. In a way, Yeradlyn states that abject behavior is the product of the gothic genre and vice versa. This analysis did a great job of digesting the word so that it was relatable to readers. Also, the analysis created a new significance of the word as it shed light on the word’s role in gothic art, literature, and behavior.