Nietzsche and Heidegger were both lovers of language, and author JeanGraybeal argues that their writing styles demonstrate a relationship with thefeminine dimension of language. Using as a framework the theories of Julia Kristevaconcerning the "symbolic" and "semiotic" dispositions in language, Graybeal readsNietzsche and Heidegger as writers and thinkers whose experimentation with languageis directly relevant both to their quests for nonmetaphysical ways of thinking andto the feminist project of moving beyond male dominance.
Thechapters on Nietzsche discuss portions of The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Ecce Homo with the question of woman in the forefront of the analysis. Thechapters on Heidegger deal, first, with Being and Time, describing the ways in whichHeidegger evokes the feminine and semioitic dimensions in language. Finally, eightof Heidegger's later essays are read with attention to feminie, maternal, and eroticimagery.