Throwing away the self: transcendental waste and the constitution of the subject
This article proposes “transcendental waste” as a novel conceptual framework to examine the constitutive role of exclusion in the construction of the modern subject. By synthesizing Julia Kristeva's notion of the abject, Mary Douglas's purity-danger duality, and Georges Bataille's concept of the accursed share, the study explores the mechanisms of sociocultural exclusion. Bringing these three thinkers into a shared theoretical dialogue provides a transition from viewing waste merely as a metaphysical category to understanding its active role within the consumption and disposal cycles of capitalist modernity. This conceptualization reopens the discussion on how the act of discarding functions not merely as a metabolic necessity, but as a foundational mechanism in the ongoing process of modern subjectification.
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