Halo as Limit: The Representation of Female Subjectivity at the Threshold

This study approaches the concept of the “halo” not as a reconciliatory sign of sanctification, but as a representational form of subject formation. It argues that the halo operates as an aestheticized boundary—constituted through exclusion—and thus carries the structural function of a limit. Subjectivity is produced through processes of demarcation that expel the material, bodily, and fluid to the outside. The female figure is positioned at this constitutive threshold: neither fully inside nor outside, but sustaining the boundary through her placement within it. Employing a qualitative methodology, the research combines conceptual modeling with visual analysis of selected historical and contemporary artworks. The findings reveal two primary strategies through which the female figure is granted conditional access to the symbolic order. In the first, she is stabilized as an object, neutralized through objectification. In the second, she appears to transcend the boundary through ecstasy or self-abandonment, entering the sacred space in a state of dispossession. Yet in both cases, her inclusion depends on the suspension of autonomous subjectivity. The study concludes that the halo functions as the aestheticized limit of subject formation rather than a benign mark of sanctity. The female figure emerges as the bearer and visible sign of this boundary, occupying the structural edge through which exclusion becomes representable.

Keywords: Subject Formation, Exclusion, Halo, Female Subjectivity, Abjection.

JEL Codes: Z11, Z13, B54.