On the Abject and the Non-normative Body

Authors

  • Emilian-Cătălin Lungu Center of Excellence in Image Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37130/jnpap970

Keywords:

non-normative bodies, abject, abject signifiers, act of ”alterization”, body agency

Abstract

How is the non-normative body affected by representation? And how is the viewer perceiving and decoding such representation? What does the viewer feel, how does the viewer approach the other body? Would the viewer experience a warm feeling of sameness when encountering the body? Or would they dismiss it with a violent jerk? What is behind the dismissiveness? Is it hate, fear, or just pure abject? These are the questions that I try to untangle in my paper, using Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror as a guide, while departing from its psychoanalytical premises.

Author Biography

  • Emilian-Cătălin Lungu, Center of Excellence in Image Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania

    Emilian-Cătălin Lungu is an independent researcher, a cultural journalist, a poet (although with interdisciplinary aspirations) and poetry workshop facilitator for the Romanian queer film festival ART200, and a programmer for BIEFF, the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival. In 2022 he published his poetry debut, supine dream. Born in 1998 in Piatra-Neamţ, he studied Norwegian and Spanish at the Faculty of Letters in Cluj-Napoca, followed by a Master’s degree in Visual Art Studies at CESI (Center of Excellence in Image Studies), University of Bucharest. He is passionate about writing and film, has been published in spaces such as Scena9, Cineuropa, Zippy Frames, Revista Transilvania, Cutra, Subcapitol, DLITE, and is actively involved in cultural life with public readings and poetry workshops, while currently working on his sophomore book.

References

Adamowicz, E. (2019) Dada Bodies. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Bourdieu, P. (2001) Masculine Domination, translated by Richard Nice, Standford: Stanford University Press.

Foster, H. (1996) “Obscene, Abject, Traumatic,” October 78, pp. 107-124.

Kristeva, J. (1982) Powers of Horror. New York: Columbia University Press.

Mosse, G. (1998) The Image of Man. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pointon, M. (1981) “Artemesia Gentileschi’s The Murder of Holofernes,” American Imago 38 (4).

Pritchard, S.N. (2015) “A Print Source for Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes,” Notes in the History of Art 34(4).

La Biennale di Venezia. National Participations. Romania [Online]. Available at: https:/www labiennale.org/en/art/2022/national-participations/romania (Accessed 23 April 2023).

Takac, Balasz (2022) “Judith and the Head of Holofernes – Art History’s Recurring Icon of Female Rage,” Widewalls [Online]. Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/ magazine/judith-and-the-head-of-holofernes/giorgio-vasari-judith-and-holofernes-ca-1554 (Accessed 23 April 2023).

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Published

2022-12-12

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2022): I AM ANOTHER YOU. Mediating Intimacy and Body Politics / MOLIÈRE: 400th Anniversary of his Birth

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Lungu, E.-C. (2022). On the Abject and the Non-normative Body. CONCEPT, 25(2), 91-106. https://doi.org/10.37130/jnpap970