ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the divergent readings of Sophocles' Antigone that can be adduced when the central conflict of the play is viewed as a struggle among the "dialectical," the "ineffable" and the "different." Although Hegel's dialectical reading of the Antigone continues to have strong contemporary support, many have justifiably questioned the essentialism underlying Hegel's characterization of gender differentiation. In a well-known addition to the Philosophy of Right, Hegel makes his position all too clear: The difference between men and women is like that between animals and plants. By depicting tragedy as an instance of spiritual self-division, however, Hegel redescribes the narrative landscape of ethical life. He redraws the contours of Sittlichkeit, aligning them with the internal demands of his logic of sublation. Subverting Hegel's thesis, woman thus "turns to ridicule the earnest wisdom of mature age which, dead to pleasure and enjoyment only thinks of and cares for the universal".
