Free Essay on the Studies by Julia Kristeva on the Subject of the Abject

Abstract

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

This paper will discuss the opinion and comparative studies made by Julia Kristeva on the subject of the abject. The paper will also give Kristevas critical analysis of abject from the eye of other scholars like Derrida. The opinion of Kristeva is that abject means the response given to a horrifying breakdown in meaning as a result of a realization on the non-existent in relation to subject and object.

Other articles give their own meanings which may be different from what Kristeva has given. In the words of Kristeva from the book Powers of Horror, abject is described as a shock caused by the realization of the whole difference between self and what is outside self. A major example on the cause of this resolve is the corpse, the memory of us, though a myriad of other things may have the same effect for example trash, a sour cut.

Discussion

Abjection can literally be understood as a reducing sensation, which is a term that has been used to insinuate a concept that disorganizes the normal identity and cultural concepts.

Earlier interpretations by Julia Kristeva signifies the shock ones body receives when faced with the reality or in other terms that which is a realization of what is self or otherwise. Kristeva asserts in the ambit of the confines that someone sees as a piece of themselves and what one feels is outside themselves, is the existence of what was parts of oneself or what was once ones identity that no longer plays as part of themselves.

Abjection is a term best expressed as the procedure where one divides their sense of self, which can be the physical, cultural or biological, with that which they refer as not tolerable or that abuses on their self a term that has come to be known as abject.

This concept by Kristeva has been in most circumstances been applied to expound narratives connected with horror, based on the ideologies of Freud and Lacan, (1994).

In the words of Kristeva from the book Powers of Horror, abject is described as a shock caused by the realization of the whole difference between self and what is outside self. A major example on the cause of this resolve is the corpse, the memory of us, though a myriad of other things may have the same effect for example trash, a sour cut. Kristeva deciphers that abject gives us a meaningful term to differentiate and compare Lacans concept of the object of desire.

In a situation where Lacan a person to control its likes and dislikes, and consequently giving way to the symbolic order of meaning, there is exclusion of the abject, where Kristeva sees it as attracting her to a level where there is no more meaning.

In the words of Kristeva, abjection is realized where there is a fight in which the body jumps out of the order of another in order for it to exist. The abject represents Primal repression as Kristeva call it, that which comes before the making of a persons relation with the desires, which occurrence takes place before the existence of conscious or unconsciousness. In a turn of events Kristeva points at a situation in the sex and physical growth of a person when a border is created between human and animal.

As far as archaic memory is concerned, Kristeva points again to the attempts wee make to free ourselves out of the hands of the animal, through abjection. On the sex and physical growth of a person abject signifies a time where we denounce our existence with the mother on recognition of the existence of me or self. The abject, as can be said in other terms, as a precondition of narcissism, meaning an existing condition of the narcissism, an occurrence preceded by the primal differences. As the abject is a representation of the horror of meaning that is breaking down. This has to do with abject which is that which destabilizes identity. Situations that do not honor the borders bring our attention to the existence of exceptions to the common order.

In another circumstance Kristeva relates the abject to the birth of what is real in someone. This she attaches to the reaction of resistance of our push for the existence of the materiality of death. This reaction of such kind of abject revives what could have been a non-existent response resulting from the horror of realizing that death of yourself is imminent. Death is not signified by a wound spitting blood all over or the pus flowing conspicuously from it. Under the circumstance of prevailing death, it would be a matter one could understand. What expands kristevas concept is a corpse, as it brings alive the distinction between the object and subject which is important in creating a way to identify and our beginning to start the symbolic order. When a human being faces a corpse especially that of a person known to them or a friend that is a representation of how real our death is. Kristeva puts it that the presentation of a corpse which is free from the notion of God or science id in essence the most presentation of abjection. The abject however has to be distinguished from fear, and in essence related in conjunction with fear and phobia. The purpose of fear, expressed otherwise, an alternative creation for the persons abject in association with drive.

Kristeva brings the abject in relation to jouissance: "where a person knows not, where a person does not love it, where does not obtain pleasure from it. This presents on the outside as a paradox, but in other words the real meaning Kristeva attaches to it is that in spite of all such things we are always attracted back to the abject.

Further before interpretations by Julia Kristeva signifies the shock ones body receives when faced with the reality or in other terms that which is a realization of what is self or otherwise. Kristeva asserts in the ambit of the confines that someone sees as a piece of themselves and what one feels is outside themselves, is the existence of what was parts of oneself or what was once ones identity that no longer plays as part of themselves.

The abject is engaged in the life of expositing on literature brings someone a give satisfaction and excitement, one that can be explained to be all different from the interaction with desire. Kristeva expresses this experience with abject in deep words as, a situation that is full and lacks purity that covers from the abject only on interaction with it.

Kristeva sees abject to her as, an intimate relation between religion and art, only fathomed as two methods of cleansing the abject. "Abject derives purification from diverse situationscomposition of a variety of catharses, the past that brings the story of religion, with a culmination of catharses only referred to as art, to the extremes, both further and nearer to religion".

Per the words of Kristeva, the finest of todays literature (Dostevsky, Prost etc.) navigate to place abject somewhere, the position in which boundaries are left to break down, a place where we face archaic space without limits, even without coming first to interact with words like object and subject. The ambition and intention for Kristeva, would be the attempts made to cover the breakdowns (and later bring back the boundaries) that are related with the abject; with literature being the greatest field for interaction between the sublime and abject: "with a closer eye of searching, it gets down to the fact that all literature is a face associated with the apocalypse which appears buttressed, irrespective of its long history on social events, based on a weak border in a case where identities dont feature with no good reason.

Kristeva opines that, literature crosses the roads which language would rather not tread, crystallizes ideas which language evades and makes vivid that which has not been expressed figuratively with the clarity it deserves. She gives a great deal of respect for the works done by poets, more specifically, because poets work of poetry is always in a good intimacy with the play of grammar, deeper meanings and metaphors, therefore laying down a fact which if it has not come will come placing language at the fear of extinction. It is imperative to take cognizance of the fact that Kristeva put up the real words that laces abject on its clear meaning: Abjection is not only caused by impurities, it is what distracts and covers the identity, order and system. The fact that abject comes not from within but without the inherent symbolic order, then subjecting a face to face interaction is a horrific event, just as one would be face with wrath and desperation at the face of a corpse, a thing now cast out of the normal though having once been part of the subject.

Kristeva's sees another way of seeing this situation where abjection is subjected to what is part of us but is excluded, that is the mother. The maternal has to be submitted to abject, what in essence brought us to existence, and hence the capability to bring forth and build an identity. Abjection will exist even to the smallest corner of a living being, up and across their subjective personalities, and even their external being which is what exist outside them, by interaction with language which is the common denominator that unites all. The idea of abject is often treated as foreign, not warm, and yet it is very familiar. The abject is often very deceptive as you will recognize it irrespective of it being foreign. A corpse which is what was previously subject to what we know brings abjection by its nature to create a way of knowing.

The concept of abjection can sometimes be brought a board in order to explain and bring out marginalized types of persons, the likes of prisoners, women, minority religious groups, the disabled. The concept space of abjection could refer to the niche the abjected objects occupy. Literature bringing out abjection makes small trials to bring to light the number of methods by which institutions close all opportunity to express the real lives people live within the places of work. People will assume various identities in a bid to prevent a situation where they are subjected to social abjection. Such people the ones Kristeva regards as people who do not fall with the category of the normal people in a group, and who are the abjects. Organizations will thus make policies to enhance the existence of the micro personalities who may face abjection or rejection. At the very individual settings and the level of an institution, both will make a myriad of formatives that are welcome and create habitation especially to the staff in discordance with the norm.

Collective instruction is a strategy that can be brought into an organization to eject or abject the negative features of an organization, hiding it from the eyes in the world of business. Such an event is what gives birth to the statement most organization will have such a mission statement. Through bringing to the peoples certain information which one wants them to own and believe, the exercise of abject is brought to play and becomes part of what has generally been accepted by the society. The presented information will then for a long time be presented in peoples minds ending up as a significant part of that unified community. The very essence of this is to point out and keep the abject in control, by ensuring that it is kept out of the minds of the people.

In some institutions for example wards where there are sick people, attenders come to face to face with everyday ill people, dying persons and hence there must be an atmosphere that is created to maintain a balance between the real and that which is not. On a daily basis they are surrounded by events of deaths and corpse and must therefore learn to exclude their self from all this madness around them. As a result a very deep understanding of what is playing must be heeded to the effect that the existence of abject has a part in helping understand how worry, horror and trauma is to be a role played by the nurses.

The concept of abject has been to describe that which is unwanted, repulsive and unlikeable. Kristeva has in the past applied this concept in cases of the situation faced by those with xenophobic and ant-Semitism conditions. The concept involved analyzing circumstances facing those abjected and those abjecting and how the oppressed are generally treated. This involved looking at the specific groups of those faced with exclusion and how they fight against such abject for example the minority. Such included a study on people who because of how they look, or how they have been created will be treated differently by other people.

When a human being faces a corpse especially that of a person known to them or a friend that is a representation of how real our death is. Kristeva puts it that the presentation of a corpse which is frees from the notion of God or science id in essence the most presentation of abjection. The abject however has to be distinguished from fear, and in essence related in conjunction with fear and phobia. The purpose of fear, expressed otherwise, an alternative creation for the persons abject in association with drive. Kristeva asserts that, abjection is realized where there is a fight in which the body jumps out of the order of another in order for it to exist. The abject represents Primal repression as Kristeva call it, that which comes before the making of a persons relation with the desires, which occurrence takes place before the existence of conscious or unconsciousness.

Julia Kristeva signifies the shock ones body receives when faced with the reality or in other terms that which is a realization of what is self or otherwise. Kristeva asserts in the ambit of the confines that someone sees as a piece of themselves and what one feels is outside themselves, is the existence of what was parts of oneself or what was once ones identity that no longer plays as part of themselves.

The abject is engaged in the life of expositing on literature brings someone a give satisfaction and excitement, one that can be explained to be all different from the interaction with desire. Kristeva expresses this experience with abject in deep words as, a situation that is full and lacks purity that covers from the abject only on interaction with it.

Kristeva sees abject to her as, an intimate relation between religion and art, only fathomed as two methods of cleansing the abject. "Abject derives purification from diverse situationscomposition of a variety of catharses, the past that brings the story of religion, with a culmination of catharses only referred to as art, to the extremes, both further and nearer to religion".

In her writing Kristeva explains that collective instruction is a strategy that can be brought into an organization to eject or abject the negative features of an organization, hiding it from the eyes in the world of business. Such an event is what gives birth to the statement most organization will have such a mission statement.

Through bringing to the peoples certain information which one wants them to own and believe, the exercise of abject is brought to play and becomes part of what has generally been accepted by the society. The presented information will then for a long time be presented in peoples minds ending up as a significant part of that unified community. The very essence of this is to point out and keep the abject in control, by ensuring that it is kept out of the minds of the people. In some institutions for example wards where there are sick people, attenders come to face to face with everyday ill people, dying persons and hence there must be an atmosphere that is created to maintain a balance between the real and that which is not.

In the words of Kristeva, abjection is realized where there is a fight in which the body jumps out of the order of another in order for it to exist. The abject represents Primal repression as Kristeva call it, that which comes before the making of a persons relation with the desires, which occurrence takes place before the existence of conscious or unconsciousness. In a turn of events Kristeva points at a situation in the sex and physical growth of a person when a border is created between human and animal.

As far as archaic memory is concerned, Kristeva points again to the attempts wee make to free ourselves out of the hands of the animal, through abjection. On the sex and physical growth of a person abject signifies a time where we denounce our existence with the mother on recognition of the existence of me or self. The abject, as can be said in other terms, as a precondition of narcissism, meaning an existing condition of the narcissism, an occurrence preceded by the primal differences. As the abject is a representation of the horror of meaning that is breaking down. This has to do with abject which is that which destabilizes identity. Situations that do not honor the borders bring our attention to the existence of exceptions to the common order.

Kristeva relates the abject to the birth of what is real in someone. This she attaches to the reaction of resistance of our push for the existence of the materiality of death. This reaction of such kind of abject revives what could have been a non-existent response resulting from the horror of realizing that death of yourself is imminent. Death is not signified by a wound spitting blood all over or the pus flowing conspicuously from it.

References

Plato. Republic. Translated with an Introduction by C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co, 2004.print

Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Malcolm Heath, London: Penguin, 1997.print

Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, and David. G. Irwin. Writings on Art. Translated by David. G. Irwin. London: Phaidon, 1972.print

Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Inquiry into Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful. Edited by Adam Phillips, Oxford Worlds Classics, 2009.print

Schiller, Friedrich. On the Aesthetic Education of Man, In a Series of Letters. Translated by Reginald Snell. Dover, 2004.print

Schopenhauer, Arthur, The World as Will and Idea: abridged in one volume. Ed. D. Berman, trans. J. Berman. London: Everyman, 1995.print

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, edited by Raymond Geuss. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings. Translated by Ronald Speirs. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999.print

Nietzsche, Friedrich, edited by Keith Ansell-Pearson. On the Genealogy of Morality. Translated by Carol Diethe. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.print

Heidegger, Martin, and Joan Stambaugh. Being and Time: A Translation of Sein und Zeit. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2010.print

Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri C. Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.print

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: an Essay on Abjection. Translated by Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.print