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In Excess: The Body and the Habit of Sexual Difference

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Abstract

Through a re-reading of Antigone, I offer a critique of Hegel's use of the story to illustrate the unity which emerges from the representation of sexual difference in ethical life. Using Hegel's own account of habits, as the mechanism by which the body becomes a sign of the self, I argue that the pretense of social unity assumes the proper construction and representation of one body only. This critique is brought to bear upon contemporary moves towards a post-Hegelian ethics of difference.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by Hypatia, Inc.

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