Finding Antigone's Voice: Woman and the Dialectic

Abstract

<p>In this thesis, I investigate Hegel's understanding of woman and the role she plays in the dialectical advance of identity. I claim that Hegel's discussion of woman in the Phenomenology of Spirit and Elements of the Philosophy of Right is problematic in that it fails to recognize the difference internal to the category of woman. Hegel treats woman as a homogenous category, which is incapable of internal differentiation. I then investigate the possibility that this inability to recognize woman's difference is indicative of a problem inherent in Hegel's dialectical method itself. I reject this claim by focussing on the necessity of unity for contradiction in Hegel's dialectic. Specifically, I defend a reading of Hegel, which emphasizes that the form of the logical requires both unity and difference, and that if the imminent necessity of a category is to develop properly, both of these elements must be present. Finally, I claim that one may be able to enrich Hegel's discussion of woman if one adopts Kristeva's perspective on the split mother/woman. If one recognizes woman as a heterogeneous category, one can have a conception of woman that sees her as more than merely an Other for male identity.</p>