Mary Balkun (Seton Hall University)

Julia Kristeva’s landmark essay, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980), will have its 45th publication anniversary in 2025. In that time, its influence has been wide ranging, whether on women and gender studies broadly, on the fields of feminist, psychoanalytic, queer, horror/gothic, and disability theory, as well as on media studies. For this roundtable session, proposals are invited that consider any aspect of the influence of Powers of Horror, past and present. These can range from the ways Kristeva’s theories have influenced a specific critical approach, the ways they have expanded our understanding of concepts such as the monstrous feminine, the ways they have been engaged by subsequent thinkers, or their continued significance, as well as their limitations, as a way to think about women and gender.