Penthesilea and the Law Before Oedipus
Penthesilea and the Law Before Oedipus
This chapter argues that Kantian Law is philosophically prior rather than an encryption of the Oedipus complex. Its priority is not the fictional priority of that which has abstracted from the biological and psychological desires of the organism. The claim for the priority of the Law rests on Kant's definition of desire. Kantian Law originates in a domain that preexists oedipalization. This is also the domain of Kleist's Penthesilea. The chapter presents a reading of Kantian ethics in conjunction with Kleist's pre-classical tragedy to demonstrate that more is involved here than a play upon Freud's classicist terminology.
Keywords: Kantian Law, Oedipus complex, Heinrich von Kleist, Kantian ethics, moral act, desire
Stanford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
