Powers of Horror

In Powers of Horror, Julia Kristeva offers an extensive and profound consideration of the nature of abjection. Drawing on Freud and Lacan, she analyzes the nature of attitudes toward repulsive subjects and examines the function of these topics in the writings of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and other authors. Kristeva identifies the abject with the eruption of the real and the presence of death. She explores how art and religion each offer ways of purifying the abject, arguing that amid abjection, boundaries between subject and object break down.

Julia Kristeva. Translated by Leon S. Roudiez

Translator's Note I. Approaching Abjection 2. Something to Be Scared Of 3. From Filth to Defilement 4. Semiotics of Biblical Abomination 5.... Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi 6. Céline: Neither Actor nor Martyr 7. Suffering and Horror 8. Those Females Who Can Wreck the Infinite 9. "Ours to Jew or Die" 10. In the Beginning and Without End... 11. Powers of Horror Notes Index