Abjection and Representation
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Abjection and Representation An Exploration of Abjection in the Visual Arts, Film and Literature Rina Arya University of Wolverhampton, UK
Rina Arya 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-0-230-38933-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-35111-4 ISBN 978-0-230-38934-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230389342 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Formydad,DrLaxmanArya Suzi Williams Maya and Anoushka
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Contents Preface and Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 Unpacking Abjection 16 2 A Cultural History of Abjection 40 3 Recovering the Sacred: The Abject Body 63 4 Abjection in the Visual Arts 82 5 The Formless 118 6 Abjection and Film 130 7 Abjection in Literature 156 Concluding Remarks 189 Notes 197 Bibliography 210 Index 222 vii
Preface and Acknowledgements My motivation for writing this book came from teaching critical theory to art students in a number of universities. Over the years it became apparent to me that many students were engaged with certain issues that could be characterized in terms of abjection. Embodiment, the diseased or broken body, and the provisional nature of subjectivity were recurring themes. Some of these students drew on notions of the body and the bodily to make broadly metaphysical claims, while others were more interested in depicting and incorporating bodily substances in their artwork. In their practice they were very explicit about their modus operandi but this did not translate into the critical exposition of their ideas. When it came to theorizing about their practice in discussions and essays, they were unable to talk about their ideas without lapsing into a litany of affects and sensations that they claimed were invoked in their artwork. Julia Kristeva s Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980; 1982) was frequently recommended to help students formulate or anchor their ideas, and it is still regarded as the definitive theory on abjection. Featuring on many course booklists, it is invariably the first reference point for any study on abjection, irrespective of discipline. Being unfamiliar with the discourse of psychoanalysis, which is a prerequisite for following Kristeva s study, many students floundered and were unable to understand the theoretical import of abjection and its applications, which led to different outcomes. In a number of cases students disengaged with the text. There was also a tendency to use the term abject loosely in an adjectival sense to refer to cognate emotions like disgust, or carelessly to associate abjection with anything that was visceral and of the body. As Nicholas Chare perspicaciously puts it: The abject is too rapidly and simply equated with piss, shit, vomit, viscera and corpses (Chare, 2011, p. 5). The danger of this conflation is that the theoretical ramifications of the term are distorted (not to mention reduced) as abjection starts to be erroneously identified with the objects that conjure up a sense of viii
Preface and Acknowledgements ix it or its effects. This runs the risk of abjection being conceived as a shorthand or catch-all term for anything pertaining to the sensational and gory. It was the perpetual misuse of the term, or its oversimplification as an aversive emotion that makes us retch as well as the perplexity that students faced when trying to bridge the gap between their practice and theory, that prompted me to address the concept of abjection squarely in my own writing on the subject. Powers of Horror is not greatly accessible, even for those conversant with its fields of discussion. Within Kristeva s corpus, however, it should be noted that it is discernibly different in approach when compared with her previous work. John Lechte comments how it introduces a marked lightening of style with a more liberal use of the first person and the more frequent inclusion of personal experience as illustrative of points being made (Lechte, 1990a, p. 6; see also Roudiez, 1982, pp. vii viii). That being said, the shift from one historical context to another without smooth alignment can make it difficult to assimilate the ideas being presented. Furthermore, her poetic style can be elliptical and, at times, convoluted. However, it is still a tour de force in post-structuralist thought, and remains pertinent to wideranging scholarship. Within the art world the concept of abjection became popular in art and art criticism in the early 1990s and has remained central to art practice, especially given its persisting interest in the body and trauma. Hal Foster attributes the interest in abjection in the 1990s to a reaction against consumerism at large and, in particular, that consumerist version of the constructed subject that was simply comprised of so many combinations of signs and commodities (Foster et al., 2011, p. 780). The language of trauma was a means of reclaiming the body and of reminding people of the importance of addressing the blood-and-guts core of humanity. In the contemporary digital age of post-humanism, where the machine has supplanted the body in many guises, a return to the body is still urgent and explains the ongoing interest in the abject in art. This book provides a means of access to the study of abjection in different fields. I will unpack abjection as a concept so as to establish its pervasiveness in culture, especially in relation to the visual arts, film and literature. What we soon realize is that the phenomenon of
x Preface and Acknowledgements abjection precedes its conceptualization; we understand what abjection feels like both physiologically and psychologically but, in order to have a complete understanding, we need to understand the theory and not just the phenomenon. A large part of the exploration in the book is concerned with how abjection has affected society and culture, and continues to do so in different spheres of existence. We can use abjection as an explanation and rationalization for laws and codes that underpin social, legal and cultural orders. Abjection is at the heart of social and cultural regulations, determines much of what is permissible or not, and affects us on a social and individual level. In many cases, especially when related to the body, we see that we have already internalized many of the don ts governing conventions. To account for the sway that abjection holds involves stepping back and thinking about the reason for its prohibition. After explicating the concept of abjection in its Kristevan psychoanalytical context, I consider its application in different academic disciplines in order to look at its currency and perpetual appeal in the arts and culture (where this is meant in an inclusive sense, comprehending artworks, films and works of literature). The applied interpretation of abjection reflects the contemporary interest in abjection in different cultural domains. What started out as a study to explain the meaning and significance of abjection for visual arts students has broadened in the writing of this book to provide a primer for students and academics from the arts and humanities who are interested in the phenomenon of abjection and its application in culture. At various stages and in different ways, many people have helped me enormously in the process of writing this book, from the reading of draft material to providing ongoing helpful comments. These include Julie Armstrong, Arthur Bradley, Jeremy Biles, Chris Daly, David Jasper, Frances Pheasant-Kelly, Theresa Sowerby and Calvin Thomas. The support, in the many forms it took, provided by Minh Ha Duong, Angela Swan, Lester Meachem, Kunu Gordon, Bob Whitmore and Sandra Cherry is also deeply appreciated. While working on this book I have also been engaged in two other related projects on the theme on abjection a guest issue for Performance Research entitled On Abjection published in May 2014, and Abject Visions: Powers of Horror in Art and Visual Culture, which is forthcoming with Manchester University Press in 2015. I would like to thank
Preface and Acknowledgements xi my collaborator and friend on both projects, Nick Chare, for his continued support including his comments on parts of Chapter 4. Finally, I would also like to thank the following people who helped in the development and production of the book: Felicity Plester, Chris Penfold, Francis Arumugam, Teresa Reynolds, Angela Airey and Amanda Kay. The cover image of the book was provided by the artist Roberta Graham and I thank her for her permission to use the image, her fantastic artwork and interesting conversations about our shared love of Georges Bataille. Thanks also to Steve Allison for transforming the image into the wonderful front cover. This book is dedicated to my dad, Dr Laxman Arya, who remains the inspiration and guiding light for everything I do, the memory of my dear friend Suzi Williams, and to my delightful nieces Maya and Anoushka.
Frontispiece We are beasts burdened with self-consciousness