With the publication of her highly acclaimed and much-cited book
Gender Trouble, Judith Butler became one of the most influential
feminist theorists of her generation. Her theory of gender
performativity and her writings on corporeality, on the injurious
capacity of language, on the vulnerability of human life to
violence and on the impact of mourning on politics have, taken
together, comprised a substantial and highly original body of work
that has a wide and truly cross-disciplinary appeal.
In this lively book, Moya Lloyd provides both a clear exposition
and an original critique of Butler’s work. She examines Butlers
core ideas, traces the development of her thought from her first
book to her most recent work, and assesses Butlers engagements with
the philosophies of Hegel, Foucault, Derrida, Irigaray and de
Beauvoir, as well as addressing the nature and impact of Butler’s
writing on feminist theory. Throughout Lloyd is particularly
concerned to examine Butler’s political theory, including her
critical interventions in such contemporary political controversies
as those surrounding gay marriage, hate-speech, human rights, and
September 11 and its aftermath.
Judith Butler offers an accessible and original
contribution to existing debates that will be an invaluable
resource for students and scholars alike.
Table of Content
Abbreviations x
Acknowledgements xii
1 Introduction 1
Feminism, identity and difference 4
From homosexual to gay and lesbian to queer 7
The influence of poststructuralism 10
Hegel and desiring subjects 13
Postscript 23
2 Rethinking Sex and Gender 25
The trouble with women 25
Feminism and the sex/gender debate 28
Denaturalizing sex and gender 30
Cultural intelligibility – contesting heteronormativity
33
From phenomenology to performativity 36
Performing gender 42
Women in/and feminism 44
Conclusion 46
3 Towards a Subversive Gender Politics 49
From parody to politics 50
Subversive gender politics 51
Performativity and subversion 54
Free will versus determinism 57
Enter iterability 61
The ambivalence of drag 66
The matter of bodies 68
Politicizing abjection – making bodies matter 74
Conclusion 76
4 Psychoanalysis and the Gendered Subject 78
Gender Trouble and psychoanalysis 79
Rubin and ‘The Traffic in Women’ 80
Freud and Oedipus 82
Melancholic gender identifi cations 83
Melancholia and performativity 85
Lacan and Oedipus 88
Assuming sex 89
Locating resistance 91
Kinship matters 93
Psychic subjectivity 97
Passionate attachment and primary dependency 99
Resisting Butler 102
Conclusion 105
5 ‘Talking Back’ – Resignifi cation and Politics
107
Words that Wound 108
The force of the performative 110
Opposing sovereign performatives 113
A linguistic account of subjectivity 115
Linguistic subjectivity and responsibility 118
Revisiting agency – politics and resignifi cation 120
Against the state 126
Conclusion 133
6 What Makes for a Liveable Life? 134
Normative violence and questions of liveability 135
Corporeal vulnerability 138
Mourning and grief 141
Questions of recognition 143
What’s wrong with ‘desiring the state’s desire’? 146
The politics of radical democracy 14
Cultural translation 150
Conclusion 154
Notes 157
Bibliography 182
Index 197
About the author
M. Lloyd, Senior Lecturer, Loughborough University
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