Abjection and Jude
Nick Harris
25
July 2024
Abjection and Jude
Kristeva's theory of abjection outlined in Powers
of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), examines the human psychological reaction
to what is considered impure, disgusting, or taboo. Of special interest in this
examination is the role of the 'other' in societal constructs. She asks when “the
other” exhibits traits which repulse the individual, traits that make “The
other” horrific.
Kristeva’s
concern with application to literature becomes prominent from the beginning of her
forming the theory of abjection. Most of Powers of Horror is an
application of this idea of abjection to the literary works of Celine. This
off-the-wall abstraction of connecting two ideas in a somewhat
stream-of-consciousness fashion reflects what L. Kleinman calls Kristeva’s want
to “swim through life”:
Kristeva describes herself…as “swimming through life,” that is, not having a plan or direction. This way both of living and of being an intellectual well describes the trajectory of her life and thought. Par. 7
The literary application of abjection is
justified in Kristeva’s defense of her position of swimming without direction. Abjection,
dealing with the concept of horror, can be especially instructive in
application to gothic literature. But other literatures (such as the novels of
Celine which Kristeva approaches) benefit from the abjection lens also. Finding
traits in “the other” that make an individual disgusted speaks to how that
individual is expressing value judgments, for disgust is a value judgment. Abjection
can help define an individual’s concept of bad versus good and, by extension,
evil versus honorable.
My
application of Kristeva’s abjection allies it with Nussbaum’s ethics of literature.
Thus, when I approach the literature of Thomas Hardy, whether the gothic short
story “The Withered Arm” or amore traditional naturalistic novel such as Jude
the Obscure, I do so from the point of view of how the characters are
influenced by what they think of as disgusting, Jude’s opinion of his wife’s
leaving him, for instance. This abjection influences that character’s sense of
right and wrong, allowing him to eventually go into a relationship with a woman
who is not his wife, who is indeed married to another man whom she has left due
to his abuse of her, the suffragette (and Jude’s cousin) Sue Bridehead.
The second major division of Hardy’s novel concerns the development of this relationship and its consequences to Jude’s goals. When he married, Jude had given up his goals of intellectual freedom, symbolized by the possibility of studying philosophy at the university in Christchruch, Finding himself set free of that marriage, at least in terms of his having to tend to it if not the legal marriage itself, he can pursue the goals once again. But his abjection to the notion of marriage creates the situation where he now finds himself having to support Sue, thus giving up his intellectual goals once again. Jude’s decisions based on an abjection caused by circumstances not of his doing (the leaving of the wife) lead him into a fated situation that will not let him succeed.
This
situation is only the beginning of Jude’s tragedies. But as the beginning,
brought on by an ethical abjection, the reasoning to cling to Sue, despite
society’s disapproval of married individuals living with each other outside of
the legal marriage, is the bedrock of Jude’s tragedies. He is searching for an
ethical thing to do that affords him the acquiring of his goals, which includes
a life with Sue. He cannot, however, find anything but heartache on his path. He
becomes disgusted at his own life, an abjection that overwhelms him.
_______
Kleinerman, L. (2022). Julia Kristeva: Perspectives on Her Life and
Work. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 70(4),
763-774. https://doi.org/10.1177/00030651221119062
Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection.
Translated by Leon S. Roudiez, Columbia University Press, 1982.
