A Study Of Judith Butler’s View Of The Body

Under the influence of a series of scholars such as Foucault and Merleau Ponty,the body has become the focus of academic circles.A group of feminists in the third wave of feminism regarded the body as an important tool to reconstruct the female subject.It is in the reflection of this theoretical starting point of feminism that Butler put forward the theory of gender performativity,breaking the distinction between physiological gender and social gender.She believes that the materiality of the body is the product of construction and cannot be used as a problem-free basis for rebuilding the female subject.Through the theory of gender performativity,Butler established a set of his own body view,and used the body as an important tool to think about the reconstruction of power discourse and life.This paper mainly takes Butler’s body view as the research object,tries to analyze Butler’s deconstruction of the discipline process of power discourse on the body,and combs the change of Butler’s body thought.Therefore,the full text mainly studies Butler’s body view through three chapters.The first chapter is the origin of Butler’s body view.Firstly,the times background of Butler’s body view is introduced.Secondly,it combs the background of Butler’s theory,and points out that Butler’s view of body has sprouted as early as in her study of Hegel’s philosophy.Later,under the influence of Foucault and French feminism,she links the body with the subject,and puts forward that the body is an important aspect of individual subjectification.Finally,by combing the changes of body cognition in western philosophy and feminism since ancient Greece,it is pointed out that Butler’s body view is the confluence of postmodern and feminist body view,which represents the important achievements of postmodern feminist body research.The second chapter mainly discusses the main content of Butler’s body view from three aspects :material body,performative body and fragile body.First of all,through the investigation of body material,Butler reveals that the materiality of body is the result of discourse construction,and reflects on the construction and exclusion mechanism of body ideal form.Secondly,it analyzes the specific process of materialization of the body,that is,the performative process of the body,and finds that the body becomes the gender subject through the call of power discourse,and constantly consolidates the materiality of the body in its own repetitive performative of normative discourse.But Butler also emphasizes that the body’s behavior can also deviate from the original norms and subvert the norms in the restatement.Thirdly,through the explanation of physical vulnerability and vulnerable situation,Butler emphasizes the interdependence between people and advocates the establishment of a non-violent ethics that puts the other first.The third chapter mainly evaluates Butler’s body view.First of all,through the study of Butler’s body view,this paper points out two characteristics of her body thought : open body and criticism of presence.On the one hand,Butler points out that the body as a kind of existence is always in the universal connection with the other and the world,and the materialization process of the body has never ended,which means that the body is not only an open existence at the synchronic level,but also means that at the diachronic level,the body is always facing the future.This shows that Butler’s body has great subversive potential.However,Butler’s subversion strategy lacks specific action guidelines,is far from the real material economic foundation,and is limited to ideological changes.It is difficult to shake the true foundation of power discourse.The conclusion part mainly summarizes the contents of the first three chapters,points out that Butler’s view of body contains the idea of anti-essentialism,and tries to subvert the existing norms,emphasizing that a feasible life needs to be open and unknown.