Performativity, precarity and sexual politics judith. Article summary performative acts and gender constitution october 31, 20 luciaebrown leave a comment so i got a bunch of books from the library about and by judith butler, like the judith butler reader and bodies that matter but obviously its impossible to summarize 300 page collections of pieces by butler. Judith butler performative acts and gender constitution. Judith butler is an assistant professor of philosophy at george washington university. Abstract gender performativity is one of the core concepts in judith butlers work.
Butler states, in this sense, gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceede. For example, john searles speech acts, those verbal as. To say that gender is performative is to say that it is a certain. Judith butlers theory of performativity, introduced in her 1990 book. Contrary to this opinion, i am arguing that they have a lot in common. Butlers recent views on gender, which i will argue, fail to be a convincing synthesis of freudian and foucauldian views.
There are many ways in which to view the concept of gender. To understand what butler means by performativity you have to understand first what a performative utterance is. As performance which is performative, gender is an act, broadly construed, which constructs the social fiction of its own psychological interiority performative 279. A succinct summary of judith butlers performative acts. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory 1988 philosophers rarely think about acting in the theatrical sense, but they do h ave a discourse of acts that maintains associative semantic meanings with theories of performance and acting. Importantly, she combines speech act theory with a phenomenological theory of acts, lacanian psychoanalysis, as well as a heavy dose of foucaults notions of subject formation to explain how social agents constitute and reconstitute reality through their performance of language, gesture and sign. Because gender identity is constructed through acts, there exists a possibility to construct a different gender by any other act. This paper provides a summary and critique of judith butlers article performative acts and gender constitution.
Jeanluc petit 2003 phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 2 4. She challenges a variety of psychological assumptions about what it means to be a gender and gives rereadings of. Gender performance and its prejudices in judith butlers performative acts and gender constitution. In her essay performative acts and gender constitution.
As butler puts is, gender is more or less a consolidation of a number of socially constituted acts on a sexed body through repetition. Ris procite, reference manager, endnote, bibtex, medlars, refworks. In outlining butlers arguments, the paper makes comparisons to other theorists such as beauvoir and turner. Judith butlers text performative acts and gender constitution. Article information, pdf download for performativity trouble. In judith butlers performative acts and gender constitution, she claims that a gender is an act that is repeated, reenacted and reexperienced p 906. Performativity of gender is a stylized repetition of acts, an imitation or miming of the dominant conventions of gender. Feministphenomenological views binary genders and heterosexual contract feminist theory. Article summary performative acts and gender constitution. Butler acknowledged this space when she said, in acts very character as performative resides the possibility of contesting their reified status 520. For example, john searles speech acts, those verbal assurances and. Her essay deals with the conceptual presence of gender within society that functions as the primary element in expected behavioral roles.
By performative, she means that an act is an act by the very fact of it happening, such as the act of promising by saying. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory 1988 philosophers rarely think about acting in the theatrical sense, but they do h ave a discourse of acts that maintains associative semantic meanings with. Judith butlers essay, performative acts and gender constitution. Until now poststructuralism and phenomenology are widely regarded as opposites. The materiality of the body is used to show its performativity, or its ability to transform the acts that get soldered.
Many people define gender a dichotomy between male and female, but it becomes more complex with theory. Performative acts and gender constitution butler judith. Performative acts and gender constitution, judith butler. Feminism and the subversion of identity 1990, and bodies that matter. That style has no relation to essential truths about the body but. Butler argues that the act that one does, the act that one performs is, in a sense, an act thats been going on before one arrived on the scene gender trouble. Pdf performative acts and gender constitution butler. Drawing chiefly upon judith butlers theory of gender performativity, this article.
Butler performative acts r chapter 46 judith butler. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory judith butler philosophers rarely think about acting in the theatrical sense, but they do have a discourse of acts that maintains associative semantic meanings with theories of performance and acting. As a form of identity, gender as a theoretical concept is. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory and the movie albert nobbs this entry was posted on may 6, 20, in postmodern feminism. Judith butler, performative acts and gender constitution. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory, judith butler discusses these gender roles in terms of performance and feminist criticism. Review of performative acts and gender constitution. In this paper butler reexamines this term and completes it with the idea of precarity, by making a reference to. Chapter 46 judith butler performative acts and gender constitution an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory philosophers rarely think about acting inthetheatrical sense, but they do have a discourse of acts that maintains associative semantic meanings \viilt theories of perlbrmance and acting. The study of masculinities has not escaped the influence of judith butlers writings on gender, performativity, and subversion. Gender performance and its prejudices in judith butlers.
Are zuni ways of reflecting upon gender as described by roscoe a better match for butlers theory than what is often taken as common sense biological differences between men and women in. Performative acts and gender constitution counterargument. In her article performative acts and gender constitution, butler performative 519 states that gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of. The social construction of gender is a theory in feminism and sociology about the manifestation of cultural origins, mechanisms, and corollaries of gender perception and expression in the context of interpersonal and group social interaction. Judith butler butler examines the trouble with unproblematized appeals to sexgender identities. Butler cites mp that the body is not just a historical idea but a set of possibilities that we must continually realise. Specifically, the social construction of gender stipulates that gender roles are an achieved status in a social environment, which implicitly and.
Butler, subjectivity, sexgender, and a postmodern theory. In a broad stroke, vastly simplified version, the understanding of gender that gender. Explanation of judith butlers performative acts and. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory, argues that gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo 520. Judith butler gender studies bibliographies cite this. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory by judith butler, 1990 slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory theatre journal 1988, gender trouble. A discussion of the idea of gender as performative and learned, not biologically engrained.
Introduction to judith butler, module on performativity. Judith butler perfmormative acts and gender constitution. Butler, performative acts and gender constitution butler, performative acts and gender constitution section navigation. The repetition of various acts, postures, and gestures, in butlers 1990 view are not expressive of a gender identity that is somehow psychologically contained within the individual. Dr jena a zelezny 2010 judith butlers work is widely known and sometimes only known, for the theory outlined in performative acts and gender constitution. Gender identity according to butler is not something that is planted in individuals and waits to be discovered but much more it is performatively produced by acts leitch et al. In order to make my argument, i concentrate on judith butlers poststructuralist concept of. Austin argues there are certain kinds of speech acts or ways of speaking that are special. Butler therefore understands gender to be a corporeal style, an act, as it were performative 272. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory, judith butler suggestions for further reading about the contributors. Performative acts and gender constitution i think that the central idea of the article performative acts and gender constitution.
Maxine eliot professor in the departments of rhetoric and comparative literature the codirector of the program of critical theory at the university of california, berkeley gender is not intrinsic but. Butler wants to examine the way gender is constructed through certain acts of the body, in order to see what possibilities there are for culture to transform the categories of gender. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Butlers answer is to think about gender performatively. An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory by judith butler is statement that gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo. Traditional gender roles and performative gender in joyce.
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