Disability as Abject

Kristeva, Disability, and Resistance

Bibliographic Data

ID12147205
AuthorsJosh Dohmen (0000-0001-7290-9131, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume31
Issue4
Pages762-778
Publication date2016-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHypatia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-5367 • E-ISSN: 1527-2001
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/hypa.12266
OpenAlexW2471923010
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited13

In this essay, I develop an account of disability exclusion that, though inspired by Julia Kristeva, diverges from her account in several important ways. I first offer a brief interpretation of Kristeva's essays “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and ... Vulnerability” and “A Tragedy and a Dream: Disability Revisited” and, using this interpretation, I assess certain criticisms of Kristeva's position made by Jan Grue in his “Rhetorics of Difference: Julia Kristeva and Disability.” I then argue that Kristeva's concept of abjection, especially as developed by Sara Ahmed and Tina Chanter, offers important insights into disability oppression; Ahmed's and Chanter's contributions improve upon Kristeva's account. Understanding disability as abject helps to explain both resistances to interacting with disabled others and ways to resist disability oppression. Finally, I argue that understanding disability as abject is preferable to recent deployments of Lacanian theory in disability studies and that this account is compatible with social models of disability

Disability studies · Dream · Interpretation (philosophy · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Resistance (ecology · Social model of disability · Social science · Sociology · Tragedy (event · Vulnerability (computing · Disability Rights and Representation · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology

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