ECSTATIC BODIES. JUDITH BUTLER AS AN INTERPRETER OF HEGEL'S AuSSER SIGH

Butler proposes a reinterpretation of the Phenomenology of Spirit, to show that the Hegelian subject is not static and self-sufficient, but ecstatic and hetero-dependent. For Butler the fundamental notion of Hegelian philosophy is the coming out of oneself [ausser sich] - the ecstasy of consciousness, who is moved by desire. Ecstasy is not the state of stillness in which the soul reaches the desired union with God, but the restless movement of the desiring body towards the other, in which it sees itself. Ecstasy is not an upward transcendence, but the original opening into an inter-relational dimension.