CorporealSemiotics:TheBodyoftheText/theTextoftheBody 427
inthefamouschapteronlordshipandbondageaboutthe"'I'thatis'We,'
and 'We' that is 'I' (110), he illustrates the irresolvable contractions
between self and the collective means of representation on which the
self nonetheless depends. His principle example in this context is
language as the medium through which the self (Hegel's "I") can and
must express his/her innermost selfhood but where other people (his
"we")arealreadypresent.Language
aloneexpressesthe'I,'the'I'itself....itisaninflectionin whichithas
immediatelypassedintounitywiththoseforwhomitisarealexistence,
and is a universal self-consciousness. That it isperceivedorheard
means that itsrealexistencediesaway... through this vanishing itisa
realexistence.(308-09;emphasisoriginal)The very conditions of possibility of communicating selfhood are
thus also the conditions which preclude the full realization of that same
selfhood. One need not buy into Hegel's ontological apparatus (his
notion of "real existence") or the epistemological certainties it seeks to
establish ("universal self-consciousness") to appreciate his dialectical
argument about the relation between self and means of expression and
its many uses for cultural critique. It is useful, among other things, for
itsunderstandingoflanguage,and,byextensionoftexts,asinescapable,
anteriormediawhicharesimultaneouslybothenablingandeclipsingthe
expression (in Hegel's sense even the being-for-itself) of what is most
personal,evenintimate,suchastheconditionofone'sbody.^124
When the flesh becomes word and bodies become texts, whatever
their reference may be, they are thereby becoming public,^125 inserted
(^124) For a related thought about the anteriority against which individual selfhood
mustfindexpressioncf.JudithButler'srecentreflectionsonhow"wearemoved
byvariousforcesthatprecedeandexceedoutdeliberateandboundedselfhood"
(Butler and Athanasiou4). For Butler, this is part of human beings' ineluctable
"dispossession," an idea that is given a race-related inflection by Holloway:
"Instead of individual conduct being the initial value of difference, [culturally
assigned racial and gendered] identity produces differential treatment before
anythingwhatsoeverisknownaboutindividualcharacter"(18).
(^125) Jameson's idea of language as a public sphere of sorts (Jameson,Hegel
Variations94) in which others are already present (and represented) is helpful