Kristevan Abjection in Muriel Spark and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Female Narratives

Abstract

Viewing linguistic and semiotic processes as constitutive of self, Julia Kristeva emphasizes the role of abjection in the construction of female subjectivity. Abjection corresponds to a state of subjectivity dominated by in-betweenness in which the distinction between the subject and the object is blurred, while this experience is necessary for the subject to complete the subjectivization process. This paper aims to scrutinize the function of this Kristevan conception in two short stories written by women recounting the experiences of their female protagonists: Muriel Spark’s “You Should Have Seen the Mess” (1958) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1899). Revolving around an utter sense of abjection, these works reflect the protagonists’ obsessive attachment to and abhorrence for the abject as well as their problematic position in relation to the semiotic and symbolic linguistic realms. Both protagonists are in search of alternative ways of coping with their subjugation in a patriarchal society, through an existence outside of social norms and expectations. Consequently, female subjectivity is regarded as an on-going social process rather than a finished one in both texts, whereby the activities of female subjectivity constitute avenues by which women can reposition and empower themselves within a patriarchal system.

Keywords

• abjection
• kristeva
• female subjectivity
• muriel spark
• charlotte perkins gilman
• zelil
• kristeva
• kadın öznelliği
• muriel spark
• charlotte perkins gilman