In the Hands of the Social: An Interview with Judith Butler (original) (raw)
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WE ARE WORLDLESS WITHOUT ONE ANOTHER: AN INTERVIEW WITH JUDITH BUTLER
June 26, 2017
Judith Butler's new book interweaves her two theories of performativity and precarity with the works of Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, and Emmanuel Levinas as a way to critically assess and speak to Tahrir Square, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and other movements of dissent. In this interview, Stephanie Berbec asks her to consider her work in light of the recent events at Standing Rock and the 2016 presidential election.
The CounterText Interview: Judith Butler
CounterText vol. 3:2 (2017): 115-129, 2017
"By ‘critical thought’ I don’t just mean critical theory in the Frankfurt School sense, although that’s certainly part of it, but critical thought more generally, as part of what we do at universities, which involves learning how to read and interpret, and reading widely and well, and learning how to substantiate your views and base them on textual dimensions. I mean these are the basics in teaching literature and philosophy, these skills and practices of critical thinking that are actually important for public life. And they are now being censored; they’re being devalued by the neoliberal metrics, but they’re also being actively devalued by other means, and I think these skills, which are very fundamental and go way back, still remain crucial, and this shows us that these fields, jointly and separately, still have a crucial political future ahead." These rather eclectic remarks wonderfully capture Judith Butler’s energetic and multi-faceted understanding of critical thinking, exemplifying her own thought in its originality, creativity, and rigor. In this interview, she discusses a wide range of themes as presented throughout her many publications, exploring ways of how her ideas can be extended to deal with topics that may not generally—or indeed readily—be associated with her work. The first part of the interview engages Butler in a discussion of what literature and poetry mean to her, before moving on to more specific considerations of Kafka’s work alongside a more general and exploratory discussion of the relations between the literary and the philosophical. The interview moves on to consider the institutional contexts which come to bear on literature; that is, what happens to literature (and to philosophy) when it is faced with academic boundaries coupled by rigid academic governing practices and neoliberal metrics, and how these may be curtailing the potential of contemporary critical work. The second part of the interview moves on to consider core themes in her oeuvre. Here, Butler discusses how the notion of vulnerability has operated since her early work on gender up to her work on ethics, ruminating over the import of poststructuralism and other influences on her ethical thinking, and further elaborating on the relevance of an ethical language of impressionability and susceptibility. This culminates into a discussion of how discourses of vulnerability and precarity can inform analyses of contemporary situations, such as the so-called refugee crisis in the EU.
In conversation with Judith Butler: Binds yet to be settled
Judith Butler is well-known as feminist, gender and queer theorist. She is probably the most widely acclaimed woman in philosophy, which was recognized not only by her great readership, but also by many awards, such as Theodor Adorno Preis awarded to her in 2012. However, Judith Butler has not dedicated her work solely to critical theory: she is also a human rights activist, and the staunch advocate of anti-war politics, non-violence and radical democratic principles. Butler came to Belgrade as the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory’s honorary guest in November 2015. She gave a lecture on ‘Vulnerability and resistance’, followed by an intensive seminar on her newest book, Notes toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. On that occasion we began this exchange which centred very much on her recent conceptual framework. 2015 was an important year because it marked the 25th anniversary of the publication of Gender Trouble, the book that has most notably changed the course of gender and sexuality studies. That book had also had tremendous impact on how women’s and gender studies were framed in post-Yugoslav region – suffice it to say that it has been translated in Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The fact that Butler’s work which did not revolve around gender has been much less known, prompted this interview to focus on politicality of vulnerability, precarity and dispossession, the cornerstones of her political and ethical theory. Questions put forward make linkages with gender which ‘is still there’; they ask what kind of human can we claim to defend in times of post-humanism and relentless production of human capital; when freedom, equality and livability work together; and how to argue for non-violence and act non-violently in the amidst of so many forms of violence. The interview took place immediately after Paris and Beirut killings, which was to some extent captured by its tone and by its aspiration to understand the limits of what is politically impossible to will. The impossibility of leading a good life in bad life informed Butler’s answers, with her constant readiness to make us think and will differently, to make us understand our obligation to co-habit the earth together on terms of equality.
Judith Butler: Life, Philosophy, Politics, Ethics: E-Special Issue Introduction
E-Special Issue Introduction Judith Butler: Life, Philosophy, Politics, Ethics: E-Special Issue Introduction, 2024
They have contributed to Theory, Culture & Society and inspired key debates and scholarship around their work. Gender Trouble transformed our understanding of gender, influencing generations of academics, activists, and cultural producers. Butler is an exceptional thinker who aims to build more inclusive and sustainable societies through their writing, which has influenced numerous fields, e.g. sociology, gender studies, politics, and the arts. The editorial introduction juxtaposes earlier and subsequent writings by Butler in order to encourage a wider reading of their work. Drawing upon the full catalogue of Theory, Culture & Society and Body & Society, the collection includes articles published by Butler, interviews with them, a book review, and articles about their work.
Feature for the Boston University Centre of Humanities website. A brief review of new books by Adela Pineda Franco, Jodi Cranston, and Abigail Gillman.
Thinking anew every time: An encounter with Judith Butler
Graduate Journal of Social Science, 2011
This paper reviews a symposium on the work of Judith Butler in 2011 as a means to reflect on the proliferation of events in professional academia. It considers the role of events in the light of ongoing changes to higher education, impact agendas and managerialism. It proposes a theorisation of encounters, symposia or conferences that mobilise ideas of collaboration and conversation, where the fact of sharing a particular space and time is invoked as the possibility for new thoughts to emerge. This implies an understanding of thought as a mode of communication, a mode of sharing even, that is made possible through bodies, material spaces and particular temporalities – a notion of thought, therefore, that makes sense only as thinking, as a creative and fluid activity that takes place in relation to and with others.