An Extensional Art-An Essay On Abjection Of Kristeva

Julia Kristeva（1941-）,a French intellectual theorist of Bulgarian descent who is still active in the Western academic world,has studied semiotics,literature,feminism,psychoanalysis,art and many other fields,forming the polyphonic and singularity of her academic thought.The paper will take Kristeva’s abjection theory as the theoretical basis,and try to find the connection or inner logic between abjection and contemporary art.Therefrom,we may discover the penetration of abjection in the contemporary art.Powers of Horror:An Essay on Abjection is the first work of Kristeva’s trilogy of psychoanalytic cultural studies,which was published in 1982.And this work also implied a shift in the focus of her research to psychoanalysis.This paper mainly adopts the method of theoretical text analysis,traces the roots of abjection through reading of documentation,and explores the relationship between the abjection and contemporary art through the document research.The paper is divided into three parts.The first is to conceptually trace and analyze the abjection,and I will find out the origin of Kristeva’s theoretical construction.In psychoanalysis,Lacan’s three registers and subjectivity,as well as Freud’s unconscious,all profoundly influenced Kristeva’s theory.In philosophy,her theory draws mainly on the thought of Bataille and Douglas.The second is to analyze and interpret the abjection.I will elaborate on four points:the relationship between the subject and abjection,the relationship between the fear object and abjection,the internal logic of abjection and taboo,and the heterogeneity of abjection.Third,I will explore the penetration of abjection in contemporary art,which is also the most important part of this paper.From the early1990s,I will use the popularity of abjection in art as an entry point,to explore the development situation of abjection in contemporary art.I will interpret contemporary art in Europe and America at the end of the 20^th century from the perspective of abjection.It will contain three levels:the ambiguity of the subject,the transgression of the abject,and the provocation of heterogeneity.Then,I will analyze the inner relationship between abjection and contemporary art.Through the interconnection of art and theory,on the one hand,it expands the penetration boundary of Kristeva’s abjection in contemporary art.On the other hand,it also provides a new perspective for the interpretation of contemporary art,thus constructing an extensional art.