JULIA KRISTEVA

VINCENT, TERRY, LIV, KARRIS

INTRODUCTION

¡ Introduction to Julia Kristeva

¡ Abjection – what it is and where it came from
¡ Looking into her most famous book, and the themes it explores

¡ Abjection within the film Alien (1979)

Key source: The Powers of Horror: Essays on Abjection, Julia Kristeva 1980
 LIFE

¡ Julia Kristeva (Юлия Кръстева) born June 24, 1941, Sliven, Bulgarian, psychoanalyst, critic, novelist, and educator

best known for her writings in structuralist

¡ linguistics (scientific study of language)

¡ psychoanalysis (method of treating mental disorders)

F ig. 1 - Julia K risteva in th e 70 s
¡ semiotics (the study of signs and sign-using behaviour)

¡ philosophical feminism (philosophical concepts and theories of women’s equality)

¡ 1966 received a degree in linguistics from the University of Sofia

¡ later that year immigrated to France on a doctoral fellowship “Her doctoral dissertation, La Révolution du
langage poétique (1974; partial translation,
¡ 1973 received her doctorate in linguistics from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Practical School of Advanced Studies) Revolution in Poetic Language), was hailed for
its application of psychoanalytic theory to
¡ Influenced by Roland Barthes and Lucian Goldmann to pursue her original interests in the field of linguistics language and literature.“ (Oliver, 1998)
LIFE

¡ 1967 married Philippe Sollers

Editor of the avant-garde journal, Tel Quel
Sollers’s novels have been a constant point of reference in Kristeva’s literary analyses, especially in the 1970s

¡ Author of over thirty books including Powers of Horror,Tales of Love, Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, Proust and the Sense of Time, and
the trilogy Female Genius

¡ 1974 professor at the University of Paris VII–Denis Diderot

teaches regularly in the United States, Canada and Europe

¡ 1979 became a practicing psychoanalyst

F ig. 2 - Julia K risteva an d P h ilippe So llers
 WORK

¡ inspired French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the French philosopher Michel Foucault, and the Russian literary theorist
Mikhail Bakhtin

Two phases characterize her writings:

an early structuralist-semiotic phase and a later psychoanalytic-feminist phase

“W ith this distinction, Kristeva
she does not refer to her own writing as feminist attempted to bring the “speaking
¡ new study she called “semanalysis,” body” back into linguistics and
philosophy. She proposed that
combination of the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud and semiotics (the study of signs) of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de
bodily drives are discharged in
Saussure and the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce
language and that the structure of
language is already operating in the
Kelly Oliver wrote in her book Reading Kristeva: Unraveling the Double-Bind body.“ (Oliver, 1998)
“Her most important contribution to the philosophy of language was her distinction between the semiotic and the symbolic
aspects of language.“

¡ semiotic = corresponds to rhythm and tone, is associated with the maternal body
¡ symbolic = corresponds to grammar and syntax, is associated with referential meaning
AWARDS

¡ she has been awarded Commander of the Legion of Honor, Commander of the Order of Merit and the first person to win the Holberg
International Memorial Prize in December 2004

¡ “Julia Kristeva . . . demonstrates how advanced theoretical research can also play a decisive role in public social and cultural debate in
general“ (chairperson of the Holberg selection panel)

¡ The French government awarded her with the Order of Arts and Letters in 1990

¡ 2008 founded the Simone de Beauvoir Prize

which is an international human rights prize for women's freedom
named after the French author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir F ig. 3 - Julia K risteva to d ay
INTRO THE ABJECTION

¡ Abjection is a term explored in Post-Structuralism

¡ Post-Structuralism is a theory based on the ideas of Structuralism and Phenomenology
¡ Julia Kristeva herself is known for her work on Structuralist and Post-Structuralist lines of thought
STRUCTURALISM

¡ Created in the early 1900s

¡ “The common feature of structuralist positions is the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible
except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the
surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract structure.” (Blackburn, 2008)
¡ An idea in sociology that implies the humanity can be understood by its relationship to an overarching system or
structure.

¡ The point of the theory is to understand the structures as to what and why humans think, perceive, feel and do.
PHENOMENOLOGY

¡ A philosophical study into the structure of experience and consciousness.

¡ “Phenomenology claims that a human being can never be considered as an object, as if he was a natural thing;
rather the task is to understand him as the focus of a relationship linking subjective attitudes to the objects
showed by the experience.” (Farina, 2014)
¡ The idea is that a human being is not a persons physical body, but is instead a persons mind and consciousness,
created by different experiences and relationships

¡ Most ideas in Phenomenology are based on assumptions rather than objective research.
POST-STRUCTURALISM

¡ A form of Post-Modernism created in response to Structuralism and Phenomenology

¡ Developed during the 1960s/70s

¡ Sometimes referred to as French Theory
¡ Mostly because it was developed by French philosophers and theorists
¡ The goal of Post-Structuralism is to deconstruct Structuralism and Phenomenology
¡ Unlike Structuralism or Phenomenology, Post-Structuralism relies on evidence to prove its ideas
ABJECTION

¡ Literal Meaning: the state of being cast off

¡ It’s a theory built from Post-Structuralism
¡ They share ideas of human culture and consciousness
¡ One of the most popular interpretations of Abjection is Julia Kristeva’s theory on it
¡ (Heavily explained in her book, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980))
POWERS OF HORROR: AN ESSAY ON ABJECTION

¡ Published in 1980 by Julia Kristeva

¡ The book’s main subject is abjection, and it draws on the theories

of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

¡ It examines horror, marginalisation, castration, and other

concepts relevant to feminism and queer theory.

Fig 1. Book cover

DEFINING ABJECTION

Abject:

¡ experienced or present to the maximum degree (of something bad)

¡ extreme and without hope
¡ showing no pride or respect for yourself

The abject refers to the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown
in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or
between self and other.
ABJECTION
¡ The abject marks what Kristeva terms a “primal
repression”
¡ Abjection is also seen to be caused by
disappointment and bad luck.
“Abjection is above all ambiguity... abjection
acknowledges it to be in perpetual danger.” [Kristeva
1980]
“The primary example for what causes such a
reaction is the corpse (which traumatically
reminds us of our own materiality); however,
other items can elicit the same reaction: the
open wound, sewage, even the skin that forms
on the surface of warm milk” [Kristeva 1980]
Fig 2. Kane
ERUPTION OF THE REAL
“Kristeva associates the abject with the eruption of the Real” [Dino, 2011:1]

She links such responses with our rejection of death’s insistent materiality.
- insistent materiality - our determined fate/death

When we are confronted with a corpse of a family member or friend,

our own death becomes apparent and real.

Fig 3. Ash death scene "The corpse, seen without God and outside of
science, is the utmost of abjection. It is death
infecting life. Abject" (Powers 4) [Kristeva, 1980]
KRISTEVA’S THEORY IN ALIEN

¡ Kristeva’s theory of the abject can be found within Alien

with the face-hugger, chest-burster, and the alien itself.
They are considered to be the object that “disrupts the
distinction between self and other” (Cherry, B. 2009:112).

Fig 4. Kane

¡ They violate the boundaries of the human body in a

repulsive manner – “the body is at the mercy of parasitic
processes beyond one’s control” (Grant, B. 2018:40),
particularly in the scenes involving the chest-burster and
face-hugger.

Fig 5. Chest Burster

KRISTEVA’S THEORY IN ALIEN

¡ There is a general focus on bodily fluids and parasitic

processes; “Anything that is indeterminate, that
overflows boundaries, that oozes from the body, like
blood, urine or faeces, is abject, a source of repulsion”
(Luckhurst, R. 2014:52).

¡ Again, this is seen with the face-hugger and chest-

burster as they nvade the body and interfere with its
processes. There is also prominent imagery of bodily
fluids; for example, the chest-burster causes the
Fig 6. Ash destruction of Kane’s body in a particularly bloody
manner and it could also be argued that Ash is a source
of the abject for the same reason.
KRISTEVA’S THEORY IN ALIEN

The idea of the abject being ‘cast away’ is also shown at the end of the film when the alien is thrown out of the ship
and into space; “the abject is literally expelled from the image in a restoration of the symbolic order” (Schneider, S.
2004:180).

Therefore, there is the removal of the source of

revulsion as the alien is not assimilated and the
boundaries between the object and subject are
redefined.

“What the Alien defines is the Other inside us. It

represents an utterly breached body, a tangle of
organs and limbs, interior and exterior confused,
the boundaries indefinable.” Pimley, D. 2003

Fig 7. Alien
CONCLUSION

¡ Julia Kristeva first advanced the theory that the process of signification in language is represented by two different
but interacting elements - the symbolic and the semiotic - which is bringing the living body back into language.
¡ A brief look at structuralism, Phenomenology and Post-structuralism and its connection to abjection
¡ Understanding of her books main themes and their relation they have to the film

¡ The film uses abjection in its creatures

ILLUSTRATION LIST:
¡ Figure 1 Julia Kristeva - http://dailynous.com/2018/03/29/kristeva-bulgarian-state-security-agent/

¡ Figure 2 Julia Kristeva and Philippe Sollers - https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/review-marriage-as-a-fine-art-julia-kristeva-philippe-sollers-columbia-university-

press
¡ Figure 3 Julia Kristeva - http://criticalflame.org/loving-kristeva-a-memoir/
¡ Ash, Alien 1979 [image] Available at: https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/8812/what-does-ash-drink-in-alien-directors-cut Last Assessed on: 7th November 2018
¡ Powers of Horror, 1980 [Book] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/783310.Powers_of_Horror Last Assessed on: 7th November 2018
¡ Alien, 1979 [image] Available at: http://www.bang2write.com/2011/07/simple-symbolism.html Last Assessed on: 7th November 2018
¡ Alien Face Hugger Scenes (1979). [User-Generated Content Online] Creat. Higgs, S. on April 23, 2018 At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf1NX7e8Gao (Accessed on
November 8 2018).

¡ The chest-burster is an example of the repulsion mentioned in the theory of abjection (1979). [Image] [Online] At: http://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2015/05/roger-
dicken-career-in-monsters.html (Accessed on November 8 2018)
¡ The alien represents the ‘other’ (1979). [Image] [Online] At: http://zouchmagazine.com/building-better-worlds-the-production-design-of-alien/# (Accessed on November 8
2018)
¡ Ash could be considered a source of the abject (1979). [Image] [Online] At: https://www.purpleclover.com/entertainment/4070-15-robots/item/ash-alien/ (Accessed on
November 8 2018)
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