Judith Butler (b. February 24, 1956) is a prominent post-structuralist philosopher and has made major contributions to feminism, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics. She is Maxine Eliot professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She also has a professorial appointment at the European Graduate School. February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and... Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women. ... Queer theory is an anti-essentialist theory about sex and gender (and often other aspects of identity, especially race) within the larger field of Queer studies. ... Political philosophy is the study of the fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form... Ethics (from Greek ἦθος meaning custom) is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to distinguish that which is right from that which is wrong. ... Rhetoric from Greek ρήτωρ, rhêtôr, orator) is the art or technique of persuasion, usually through the use of language. ... Comparative literature, colloquially abbreviated comp. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as the University of California at Berkeley, UC Berkeley, Cal, California, or Berkeley) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... The European Graduate School (EGS) in Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies (EGIS). ...

Butler received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University in 1984, and her dissertation was subsequently published as Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France. In the late-1980s, between different teaching/research appointments (most notably at the Humanities Center at Johns Hopkins University), she was involved in "poststructuralist" efforts within Western feminist theory to question the "presuppositional terms" of feminism. Philosopher in Meditation (detail), by Rembrandt Philosophy is a field of study that includes diverse subfields such as aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics, in which people ask questions such as whether God exists, whether knowledge is possible, and what makes actions right or wrong. ... Yale redirects here. ... The Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876, is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. ... Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women. ...

Gender Trouble (1990)

Main article: Gender Trouble.

To question the very foundational presuppositions of Western feminism meant opening it up to what others would later name queer theory, and criticizing the imperialism of a Western feminist theory that purports to represent "all" women. In 1990, Butler's book Gender Trouble burst onto the scene, selling over 100,000 copies internationally and in different languages. The book critically discusses the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Julia Kristeva, Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, and, most significantly, Michel Foucault. The book was popular enough that it even inspired an intellectual fanzine, Judy!, that poked fun at her academic celebrity status. Gender Trouble is a book by Judith Butler that is famous in queer theory. ... Queer theory is an anti-essentialist theory about sex and gender (and often other aspects of identity, especially race) within the larger field of Queer studies. ... See also colonialism Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires. ... Gender Trouble is a book by Judith Butler that is famous in queer theory. ... Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986) was a French author and philosopher. ... Philosopher Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (born 24 June 1941, Sliven, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian philosopher, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. ... Sigmund Freud, 1907 Sigmund Freud, around 1921 Sigmund Freud (IPA: []) (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Cover of Elisabeth Roudinescos biography of Lacan Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. ... Luce Irigaray (born 1930 Belgium) is a French feminist and psychoanalytic and cultural theorist. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher of Jewish descent, most often referenced as the founder of deconstruction or, by less sympathetic theorists, deconstructionism. His work had a significant impact on continental philosophy and on literary theory, particularly through his... Michel Foucault (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher who held a chair at the Collège de France, which he gave the title The History of Systems of Thought. ... Judy! was a critical theory fanzine started in Iowa City in 1992 by an undergraduate student, Andrea Lawlor-Mariano, using the pseudonym Miss Spentyouth. ...

The most widely read and misread move in Gender Trouble is Butler’s claim that sex, gender, and desire are made culturally intelligible through repeated actions, stylizations, and enactments in, around and on the body within a regulative discourse. She argues that the regulative discourse that produces gender, sex, and desire obscures the signification of those categories behind the appearance of sex as a fact with ontological priority over gender and desire. This discourse exists only through repetitive signifying acts but obscures the contingency and temporality of its own genesis by producing sex as the appearance of a natural and unchanging “fact” which purports to express and therefore justify its constructions of gender and desire. Butler claims, then, that without a critique of sex as discursively produced, the sex/gender distinction as a feminist strategy for contesting constructions of binary assymmetric gender and compulsory heterosexuality will be ineffective.

The concept of performativity is at the core of Butler's work. It extends beyond the doing of gender and can be understood as a full-fledged theory of subjectivity. Indeed, if her most recent books have shifted focus away from gender, they still rely on performativity as a theoretical matrix.

Bodies That Matter (1993)

Butler's next book, Bodies That Matter, seeks to clear up confusions produced by both willful and inadvertent misreadings of both her work in Gender Trouble and poststructuralist feminism in general. To disrupt readings of the gender performative that simplistically view gender enactment as a daily voluntaristic "choice," Butler strengthens the performative theory of gender with a consideration of the status of repetition. Here she cites Derrida's theory of iterability or citationality, and goes on to work out a theory of performativity as citationality. Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher of Jewish descent, considered the first to develop deconstruction. Positioning Derridas thought Derrida had a significant effect on continental philosophy and on literary theory, particularly through his long-time association... Performativity (Callon 1998) is a concept in economic sociology, specifically those in the constructionist camp, that challenges the assertions made by structuralist camp (Granovetter 1985). ...

Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1997)

In Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative, Judith Butler began to address the issue of "hate speech", language and censorship. Warning that she was not totally opposed to juridical limitation of hate speech in some circumstances, she then argued that hate speech exists only retrospectively; that is, when it has been declared such by juridical authorities. As such, the state appropriates to itself the possibility of defining hate speech and the limits of acceptable discourse (Butler is drawing here on Foucault's episteme concept or theory of discourse), declaring, for example, that burning a cross in front of a house in a Black neighborhood is not a form of "hate speech" (even though it is a common KKK warning of impending action), but that "pornography" constitutes such "hate speech", on the sole grounds that US courts have decided so. Judith Butler thus discusses Catharine MacKinnon's anti-pornography stance, not so much for being against pornography but for conferring on the state the power of censorship to condemn it. Butler warns that this tactic of appealing to the state may backfire on progressivists, in an argument which is reminiscent of Foucault's description of the usage of the lettres de cachet by families referring to the sovereign to condemn members of their own family. Hate speech is a controversial term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a group of people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... As distinguished from techne, the Greek word episteme (literally: science) is often translated as knowledge. ... Discourse is a term used in semantics as in discourse analysis, but it also refers to a social conception of discourse, often linked with the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and Jürgen Habermas The Theory of Communicative Action (1985). ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... Pornographic movies Pornography (from Greek πορνη prostitute and γραφία written material) (also informally referred to as porn or porno) is the representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal. ... Dr. Catharine Alice MacKinnon (born 7 October 1946) is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher, and activist. ... Progressivism is a political philosophy whose adherents promote public policies that they believe would lead to positive social change. ... In French history, lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France, countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal, or cachet. ...

Moreover, quoting Foucault's first volume of the History of Sexuality, she argues that any attempt of censorship, by justice or otherwise, is forced to duplicate the forbidden language.^[1] Censorship produces its own discourse, and the discourse on sexuality has never been as great as when it was completely censored. This repetition of words now declared forbidden (by the state) spread those hate words in the very attempt of stopping them. This is the paradoxical problem of censorship. The Dada movement had already declared, at the beginning of the 20th century: "if you don't like Dada, you're already talking about Dada; if you like Dada, you talk about Dada; both ways you're talking about Dada".^[2]) Indeed, Butler argues that censorship is primitive to language, and that the "subject" is only an effect of this original censorship (in the same way as Foucault argues that the "subject" is an effect of power, instead of power being a property of individual subjects; see also Althusser's concept of interpellation). Butler appeals to Lacan's "forclusion" concept or Derrida's "constitutive limit" to explain this original sense of censorship. "If discourse depends on censorship, then the principle to whom we would want to oppose ourselves is also the principle of production of the discourse of opposition". "Silence is the performative effect of a certain type of discourse, the discourse which address itself to someone to delegitimate his discourse". State power is presupposed by the one who carries this type of repressing discourse. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Dadaism or Dada is a post-World War I cultural movement in visual art as well as literature (mainly poetry), theatre and graphic design. ... Subject (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Louis Althusser (October 19, 1918 _ October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... Interpellation is a concept first coined by Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser to describe the process by which ideology addresses the individual subject, thus effectively producing him as an effect. ... Cover of Elisabeth Roudinescos biography of Lacan Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. ... Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French literary critic and philosopher of Jewish descent, most often referenced as the founder of deconstruction or, by less sympathetic theorists, deconstructionism. His work had a significant impact on continental philosophy and on literary theory, particularly through his...

A part of the problem of the duplication of "hate speech" in the juridical discourse that outlaws it, lies in the issues of signification: if J.L. Austin's concept of "performability" is correct, and that it is possible to "do things with words" (hence the problem of hate speech), words themselves do not have one absolute signification, but various meanings depending on the context. Language is a mix of words and body, and bodies can alter the meaning of a spoken word. Butler cites Richard Delgado, for whom it is possible to identify hate speech on the use of certain key-words: "Words such as 'nigger' and 'spick' are badges of degradation even when used between friends: these words have no other connotation." Therefore, according to Delgado, the act of calling someone a name should be censored if the name used belongs to a previously-identified hate speech. However, Butler points out that "this very statement, whether written in his text or cited here, has another connotation; he has just used the word in a significantly different way." Judith Butler thus underlines the difficulty of identifying a hate-speech. Ultimately, the state itself defines the limits of acceptable discourse, according to her. However, Judith Butler takes the precaution to explicitly deny being against all forms of limitation of discourse, the object of her book being only to point out the different issues at stake when one address the problem of hate speech and censorship. John Langshaw Austin (March 28, 1911 - February 8, 1960) was a philosopher of language, who developed much of the current theory of speech acts. ...

Judith Butler's complex demonstration shows that it is not possible to easily judge censorship: in some cases it is useful and necessary, in others it may be worse than tolerance. This debate is also cultural, as shown by the different legislation concerning historical revisionism, which can be protected in the US under the First Amendment, but forbidden in European countries as dangerous forms of hate speech. Most important, Butler shows that our conception of the workings of censorship must be renewed, as must be our ideology of an independent subject to whom the power of censorship could be attributed: censorship ultimately relies on the state and, even before, is the condition of discourse itself. The cross of the war memorial and a menorah for Hanukkah coexist in Oxford. ... Historical revisionism is often a legitimate effort in which historians seek to broaden the awareness of certain historical events by re-examining conventional wisdom. ... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ...

Style and politics

Butler's academic (though not her popular) writing is very dense and theoretical. Martha Nussbaum in a review in the New Republic, accused Butler of willful obscurantism.^[3] Butler has responded to these charges by citing ideas from Theodor Adorno on the necessity to break from traditional language if one is to subvert the dominant cultural narrative. Martha Nussbaum (born Martha Craven on May 6, 1947) is an American philosopher, with a particular interest in ancient philosophy, political philosophy and ethics. ... For other uses, see the disambiguation section. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ...

In 1998, Philosophy and Literature admonished Butler with first prize in its Fourth Bad Writing Contest, for a sentence in the scholarly journal Diacritics. In their press release, however, they quoted Warren Hedges who praised her as "one of the ten smartest people on the planet."^[4]

In a London Review of Books article, Butler identifies as an anti-Zionist Jewish American who is concerned with the loss of academic freedom implicitly advocated by pro-Israeli groups.^[5] The London Review of Books (or LRB) is a twice-monthly British literary magazine. ...

Major works

• 2005: Giving An Account of Oneself
• 2004: Undoing Gender
• 2004: Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence
• 2000: Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left (with Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek)
• 2000: Antigone's Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death
• 1997: The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection
• 1997: Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative
• 1993: Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex"
• 1990: Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
• 1987: Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France

Gender Trouble is a book by Judith Butler that is famous in queer theory. ...

Notes

1. ^ Judith Butler was drawing here on Foucault's concept of episteme, or the conditions of possibility of discourse before the subject even attempts to speak - see also Butler's use of Lacan's concept of forclusion.
2. ^ This last Dada example is not given by Butler in her book, but explains how discourse can proliferate even if censored (or the more that it is censored).
3. ^ Martha Nussbaum. "The Professor of Parody." The New Republic Online, 22.2.1999. URL accessed on April 14, 2006..
4. ^ Philosophy and Literature. "Winners of the Fourth Bad Writing Contest (1998)." Press Release. URL accessed on April 13, 2006.. The runner-up that year was Homi K. Bhabha; the prior year's winner was Fredric Jameson. Following controversy, and perceptions of mean-spiritedness, over the "Bad Writing" award Denis Dutton gave out under the auspices of his academic journal, Dutton stopped the award in 1999 (Dennis Loy Johnson. "Who Killed Lingua Franca?." URL accessed on April 14, 2006.).
5. ^ Judith Butler. "No, it's not anti-semitic." London Review of Books. URL accessed on April 5, 2006.

As distinguished from techne, the Greek word episteme (literally: science) is often translated as knowledge. ... Cover of Elisabeth Roudinescos biography of Lacan Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (105th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This page is about the critical theorist, Homi K. Bhabha. ... Fredric Jameson (b. ... Denis Dutton is a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. ... April 14 is the 104th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (105th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Judith Butler

• Berkeley Faculty Biography - Judith Butler
• European Graduate School Faculty Website - Judith Butler
• theory.org.uk - Judith Butler Resources
• A comprehensive Judith Butler bibliography