Download This PaperConsumed by the Real: On Abjective Consumption and its Freaky Vicissitudes
Rossolatos, George (2018). Interdiscursive Readings in Cultural Consumer Research. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 306-343.
38 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2020
Date Written: April 1, 2018
Abstract
In this chapter the concept of abjection is extended to cultural consumer research by offering a conceptual framework of abjective consumption that rests on three pillars, namely irrationality, meaninglessness, dissolution of selfhood. By critically reflecting on Kristeva’s psychoanalytic insights, it is argued that abjective consumption constitutes more than a peculiar case of uncontrollable desire, far removed from an affirmative quest for (sub)alternative cultural identities. The existentially affirmative phenomenon of abjective consumption and its cultural ramifications are interpreted by pursuing a psychoanalytically informed discourse analytic route. Its modus operandi is illustrated by drawing on a corpus of 50 documentary episodes from the TV series “My Strange Addiction” and “Freaky Eaters.” The findings from this analysis point to different, simultaneously operative discursive complexes (e.g. moralizing, medical), none of which is commensurate to abjective consumption.
Keywords: abjective consumption, CDA, psychoanalysis, discursive complexes, cultural consumer research
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