Julia Kristeva’s Abjection in Angela Carter’s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

Abstract

This essay studies Angela Carter‟s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman in terms of Julia Kristeva‟s concept abjection. In her theory of subjectivity, Kristeva argues that abjection is put wrongly onto women. Accordingly, this essay is concerned to answer one central question: How does Carter‟s The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman represent Kristeva‟s concept of misplaced abjection? To answer this question, the study is limited only to four episodes of the book: episode 2: “The Mansion of Midnight,” episode 3: “The River People,” episode 5: “The Erotic Traveller” and episode 7: “Lost in the Nebulous Time.” The collected signs of misplaced abjection in the specified episodes will be then discussed in four categories: “Mary Anne,” “The Amazonian Women,” “The Prostitutes of the House of Anonymity” and “The female Centaurs.” These categories are organized around the female character(s) whom Desiderio, the protagonist of the story, encounters along his journey to Hoffman‟s castle. In each category, the conditions and struggles of the named female character(s) are elucidated according to such keywords as abjection, feminism, patriarchy, subject/object and subjectivity. It is supposed that the present essay would reveal in the end the particular way Carter has represented the concept of misplaced abjection.