Recognizing Females. Hegel’s Antigone-Device,

In what terms can the model of recognition theorized by Hegel be applied to the man–woman relationship? Following a long period, since the 1970s of the last century, of clear rejection of Hegel’s dialectics within feminist circles, in recent decades, within the same feminist movements and gender studies, Hegel’s ideas have been newly explored precisely to try and answer this question. The main claim of this contribution is that, rather than looking at the slave–master dialectic, in order to find Hegel’s best account on the process of subjectivation and the claim to recognition by women, insightful pages are those dedicated to the figure of Antigone, to whom Hegel devotes a strikingly articulated and consequence-bearing reading in the Phenomenology of the Spirit. The model of recognition spelled out there also shows universal traits, which are particularly useful in addressing urgent issues of misrecognition typical of our society.