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Once upon a Time: Femininity and the Feminine Position

This article has as a central reference Jelinek’s revised version of the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty”. The author describes how the two protagonists, Sleeping Beauty and her Prince, encounter, take up their positions and mark both relation and difference. Jelinek’s interpretation allows for one to address the question of femininity in a structural manner. The idea of a feminine position is explicated through a comparison of Sleeping Beauty with Antigone. In contrast with this feminine position, the position of the prince is characterized as a place of unity: the place of he that is who he is. This leads to the question of a(n) (im)possible relation between a crazy feminine desire and a unique phallic desire.