Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France

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Judith Butler's Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France is a revised doctoral dissertation that explores the concept of desire as it appears in G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and its subsequent interpretations by various 20th-century French philosophers. The book delves into how Hegel's ideas on desire and recognition were engaged with and transformed by thinkers in France. This work is situated within the broader context of Continental philosophy, which, in the 20th century, moved away from analytic traditions and embraced phenomenology, existentialism, and later, structuralist and poststructuralist critiques. The Hegelian renaissance in France during this period involved re-examining Hegel's texts, particularly the Phenomenology of Spirit, to understand their implications for contemporary thought.12345

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Judith Butler
Butler’s first book, Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France (1987), a revised version of their doctoral dissertation, was a discussion of the concept of desire as it figures in G.W.F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and its subsequent interpretations by various 20th-century French philosophers.
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Butler’s first book, Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France (1987), a revised version of their doctoral dissertation, was a discussion of the concept of desire as it figures in G.W.F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and its subsequent interpretations by various 20th-century French philosophers.
Read More