Harry’s abjection in Roald Dahl’s short story Poison (1950)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.071025/dp3c1y43Keywords:
Abjection, Julia Kristeva, Poison, Roald DahlAbstract
This study explores Harry’s abjection to otherness he faces in Roald Dahl’s Poison. Abjection is theorized by Julia Kristeva by underlining humans’ disgust reactions to anything stated as the other. Dahl’s story tells about an Englishman named Harry who asks for help since he thinks there is a snake under his bed. A doctor named Dr. Ganderbai comes and reveals that the snake is non-existent. Harry is furious by stating the doctor as “dirty little Hindu sewer rat” since he assumes that the doctor has accused him of being a liar. Through qualitative method and explorative approach, this paper investigates that what Harry says is a disgust to Dr. Ganderbai as the other. Harry’s abjection is shaping a radical differentiation between self and other. He is not only rejecting the doctor, but he is phobic to him, shaping his image as the filth, the condemned, and the threatening one. Harry is also pointing to his postcolonial position in which English people will undermine Indian ones as their former colony. In conclusion, Dahl’s short story indicates Harry’s abjection that creates steep differences between self and other, Englishman and Indian, and even the noble and the filth one.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ielma Maulidiah, Clarita Intan Engge, Hariyono Hariyono, Rommel Utungga Pasopati, Kusuma Wijaya (Author)
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