Concluding Remarks

Abstract

Throughout the book I have attempted to assay a concept that is paradoxically regarded as dangerous and yet essential to our existential human condition. Civilization is a campaign against abjection. Although we may take great pains to avoid abjection by purifying it and safeguarding boundaries, it dominates a large part of our existence on an individual and societal level. Kristeva’s claims for it are profound: it is foundational to both the production and maintenance of society: ‘[f]or abjection, when all is said and done, is the other facet of religious, moral, and ideological codes on which rest the sleep of individuals and the breathing spells of societies’ (Kristeva, 1982, p. 209).

Your sex is the darkest and most bloody part of yourself. Lurking in the washing and in the undergrowth, it is itself a sort of half being or animal, alien to your surface habits. An extreme conflict exists between it and what you show of yourself. Whatever your real violence, you present a civilised and polished aspect to others. Every day you seek to communicate with them, avoiding clashes and reducing each thing to its poor common measure so that everything can harmonise and be ordered (Bataille, Œuvres completes II, Manuel de l’anti-chrétien, p. 390 in Surya, 2002, p. 518).