Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Master of Arts

Program

Theory and Criticism

Supervisor

Rajan, Tilottama

Abstract

This thesis investigates Hegel’s account of marriage in his Philosophy of Right as an ontological impasse which bears witness to a splitting and deadlock within his broader conception of ethical life (Sittlichkeit). As such, it is our aim to situate an opacity within the Hegelian self-conscious subject, as opposed to the subject attaining an inner self-awareness and transparently reflexive agency and, to this end, we put Hegel into conversation with his contemporary, Heinrich von Kleist. From this standpoint, we show in the first chapter how the thinker against whom Hegel formulates his account of marriage is Immanuel Kant who approached marriage as a contract. We map the rift between Kant and Hegel to the psychoanalytic concepts of desire and drive, in which Hegel takes desire to its breaking point, passing over to the problematic of sublimation (as distinct from the idealization we see in Kant’s account). In the second chapter, we investigate the performative role the wedding ceremony plays in Hegel’s account, in which the spoken vows, as the symbolic inscription and mediation of the marriage, show how symbolic repression through language does not take place without remainder. Finally, in the third chapter we interrogate the “Entschluss” at stake in marriage, a term that translates to decision and resolve, which we situate as an existential decision as opposed to an everyday choice; here we put Hegel into conversation with Schelling in order to see how German idealism situates the subject as ‘not-All,’ as opposed to an undivided identity.

Summary for Lay Audience

This thesis investigates Hegel’s account of marriage in his Philosophy of Right in order to interrogate the ambiguities of the subject’s emergence as a socialized being. To this end, we put Hegel into conversation with his contemporary, Heinrich von Kleist, as they both discern a fundamental opacity within the subject’s relation to symbolic rituals, especially marriage; they both see how the subject’s actions necessarily fail to coincide with its intentions and what appears to be contingent takes on the significance of necessity. From this standpoint, we show in the first chapter how the thinker against whom Hegel formulates his account of marriage is Immanuel Kant who approached marriage as a contract. We map the rift between Kant and Hegel to the psychoanalytic concepts of desire and drive, in which Hegel takes desire to its breaking point, passing over to the problematic of sublimation (as distinct from the idealization we see in Kant’s account). In the second chapter, we investigate the performative role the wedding ceremony plays in Hegel’s account, in which the spoken vows, as the symbolic inscription and mediation of the marriage, show how symbolic repression through language does not take place without remainder. Finally, in the third chapter we interrogate the “Entschluss” at stake in marriage, a term that translates to decision and resolve, which we situate as an existential decision as opposed to an everyday choice; here we put Hegel into conversation with Schelling in order to see how German idealism situates the subject as ‘not-All,’ as opposed to an undivided identity.

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