abjection

Abjection is a concept in psychoanalytic theory and cultural analysis that refers to the experience of confronting what disturbs the boundary between self and other. The abject denotes that which is expelled from the subject or the social order—garbage, filth, corpses, bodily waste—and whose presence exposes the fragility of boundaries between inside and outside, life and death, cleanliness and contamination. The term is closely associated with Julia Kristeva, who in Powers of Horror (1980) argues that the formation of the subject depends on repudiating the abject. The child differentiates from the mother by rejecting the mother’s body and waste, thereby constructing a separate sense of self. The abject thus lies at the margins of meaning: it is both repulsive and alluring, a reminder of mortality and the porousness of boundaries that culture seeks to deny.

In practice, abjection helps explain reactions in literature, film, and art, particularly scenes of decay, terror, or contamination that provoke fear, disgust, or fascination. It has been used to analyze gender norms, colonialism, and other forms of social exclusion, by showing how categories of normal/abject regulate bodies, identities, and power. Critics note that Kristeve’s account risks essentializing the maternal body and that the term has since been expanded beyond psychoanalysis to describe various forms of marginalization and stigma. Nevertheless, abjection remains a common tool in humanities disciplines for examining how cultures negotiate horror, impurity, and the boundaries of the self.