STAGING A NOUMENAL BODY INTHE VORSTELLUNGSWELT, OR: DISSECTING “MATERIALITY” INSCHOPENHAUER AND BUTLER

This essay begins with mimicry. First, the body of Schopenhauer—as it can be inferred from books I and II ofDie Welt als Wille und Vorstellung—is performatively portrayed within the scope of one page. Second, the body of Judith Butler, as inferred from Bodies that Matter, is equally laid bare by means of the same gimmick: via the lenses of rhythmic and quasi-satirical judgement. Each sentence laid out within these two pages (one to speak to each author) is then duly dwelt upon in the subsequent sections.A comparative study of Schopenhauer’s take on the body againstJudith Butler’s,this paper is bound to exceed phenomenality. In its first section, the paper addresses Schopenhauer’s Leib as it presents itself in two (seemingly) antipodal fashions: once as Wille, and once as Vorstellung.1 Accordingly, Schopenhauer’s account of Materie and Wille is carefully investigated, so as to illuminate the body in both of its polarities. In its second section, Butler’s notion of“materiality” and “construction” in Bodies that Matter is cautiously dissected, with the aim of exhibiting a body which exceeds its own referent. Lastly,these two free-standing bodies are positioned against one another,parading their differences as well as intersections, while questioning their viability in a Vorstellungswelt. In my concluding section, I attempt to understand the corollaries of each bodies’ framework of agency, and assert that because “the body” is not a stable referent, either notion of body may be said to be a deviation from an originary.