Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection

Translator Leon S. Roudiez provides a brief commentary on his process at the beginning of the book, highlighting the difficulties of translating Kristeva’s work. He notes that although critics may see Powers of Horror as a “turning point” in Kristeva’s opus, he finds that the only change is in the writing, not the substance. He writes, “In other words, meaning emerges out of both the standard denotation(s) and the connotations suggested by the material shape of a given word” (vii). This is to say, Roudiez faces the need to account for both the dictionary definition of words (denotation) and their connotations, or what the words imply. This is difficult in at least three regards: First, Kristeva’s writing becomes increasingly metaphorical and poetic; second, her tone becomes more colloquial; and finally, a “particularly vexing” problem, French has a smaller vocabulary than English. Consequently, since there are more words in English to translate a French word, there are also more connotations attached to English words. For example, the word propre in French translates to both “clean” and “proper” in English. When Roudiez asked Kristeva for clarification, she replied that she meant both English words with the use of one French word.