Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection Chapter Summary & Analysis | Chapter 1, Approaching Abjection

Chapter 1, Approaching Abjection Summary and Analysis

In this chapter, Kristeva gives what she calls a "phenomenological" account of the abject. This means that Kristeva begins her investigation by relating and describing her own personal experience of the abject in order to give the reader (and herself) a better understanding of it. One of the chief features of the abject is its ambiguity. It is somewhere between being an object and not being an object. However, it should be noted that this has nothing to do with the abject itself; there is not something about the abject which makes it into a "pseudo-object" as Kristeva says. Rather, classifying something as an object or not an object is something that is done through the language of the subject (that is, of the person). A person relates to his or her world through language and therefore when something is excluded by one's language, it is impossible for that person...
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