A ‘disobedient’ reading: Carla Lonzi’s Let’s spit on Hegel

This essay explores the philosophical and political trajectory of Carla Lonzi, a central figure in Italian feminism and co-founder of Rivolta Femminile. Moving beyond the confines of traditional Marxist and Hegelian dialectics, Lonzi articulates a theory of female subjectivity rooted in difference, rejection, and radical autonomy. Her critique of the phallocentric logic of recognition – exemplified in her polemic Let’s Spit on Hegel – rejects mediation and the sublimation of women’s experience into male- defined history. Drawing on her Diario (Taci, anzi parla), the essay highlights Lonzi’s search for a language adequate to female difference, resonating with Julia Kristeva’s notion of poetic revolution and heterogeneity. The influence of French post-Hegelian thought (Kojève, Koyré) is reframed through Lonzi’s experiential and anti-theoretical practice. Ultimately, the essay argues that Lonzi’s work is not only a foundational feminist critique but also a radical intervention in 20th-century continental philosophy.