Abjection in Literature

Abstract

So far in the book, abjection has predominantly been discussed in relation to the visual, namely, artworks and film. It is easy to see why theorists and critics tend to gravitate towards the visual aspects of abjection, especially given that the visceral and somatic aspects of the phenomenology of abjection lend themselves more readily to visual expression. However, in order to attain a fully rounded understanding of the concept, and in keeping with Kristeva’s efforts, a discussion of the application of abjection in literature needs to be undertaken. Franz Kafka argues for the power of language to evoke the visceral: ‘[w]riters speak a stench — not because they subscribe to the production of unpalatable things, but because they are able, thanks to their “construction,” to enjoy “with all their senses” everything, even the “most evil” …’ (quoted in Menninghaus, 2003, p. 261). Another writer who expresses the turmoil of sensation as central to his perception of the world is Jean-Paul Sartre. Pierre de Boisdeffre observes that ‘[t]he entire novelistic work of Sartre seems haunted by the obsession with a rotten, decomposed, moldy world, one full of sickening secretions’ (quoted in Menninghaus, 2003, p. 356). ‘Sartre’s Roquentin [in Nausea] is not merely using disgust metaphorically when he describes his condition as nausea. He feels it and finds everything around him to elicit it’ (Miller, 1997, p. 29).