The thesis aims to observe and interpret visual representations of the abject in Steve McQueen’s first two feature-length films Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011). Although the movies are working with different topics – Hunger leads us to the world of Maze prison of the 1980’s in the middle of a hunger strike while Shame, set in present-day New York, recounts the life of a sex-addict – yet McQueen’s photographic language involves images of filthiness and transgression in both to redefine their narratives in terms of abjection. After the chapter that serves as a general introduction for those who are novel to the notion of the abject and its intimate relationship with dirt, body, its fluids and sexuality, the thesis continues to apply this concept examining the horroristic and repulsive imagery in Hunger first, considering such themes as the political body versus that of the prisoners’, violence inflicted on the male body, psychological and sexual humiliation, as well as relating to biological processes in the broadest terms; including the substances of defilement, excrement and food, and the graphic deterioration of the starved body, and finally, religious elements placed in connection with the abject. In the third chapter the same principles are used to unfold the narrative of Shame in terms of abjection, however, the themes are revolving around sexuality, taboos, and mental processes. Therefore, in Shame the topics discussed are the following: the relationship of space and body, cleanliness and uncleanliness, strangeness and its implications resurfacing in sexual behaviour, obsessional neurosis and addiction to sex, and the transgression of social norms in terms of perversions and indulging in deviant forms of sex as well as pornography. The final subsection is paralleling Shame and the cult-film American Psycho (2000), both of which seem to incorporate similar themes and images to represent the abjection rooted in neurosis and immersion in sex, which observation is argued to lead to a better understanding of a sex-addict being stigmatized as much as a serial killer. The thesis concludes on the note that McQueen’s visual language is in fact “louder” than the actual sound of the films and the void that silence leaves is filled in by symbolic images that originate from the concept of abjection, which, if they are recognized by the viewers, do more narration than any dialogue could ever do.It also comes to the realization that Hunger and Shame, can be thought of as dichotomous as the former excorporates while the latter incorporates the abject.