Judith Butler 's Cultural And Political Criticism

Judith Butler has become an impassable name in contemporary academic circles in many research areas such as feminism, gender studies, queer politics, social ethical politics and cultural criticism, etc. His research and influence, including the wide range of his theory view, the deep involvement in the society, the strong concern to the reality and giant academic influence, make Butler a quite open and practical research topic. This dissertation, applying the research methods such as discourse analysis, textual analysis, interdisciplinary research, tries to break through the current single view of Butler’s study and conducts a systemic study by integrating his constant steering research subjects into the perspective of cultural-political criticism so as to explore the power operation system and the internal logic of Butler’s political criticism system as well as re-calculate his academic position and theoretical value. What will be done above may provide a new idea and open up a more wide space for Butler’s research.The main body is divided into six chapters:Chapter one:Subject theory:the philosophical basis of cultural-political criticism. Butler’s exploration of the subjects coincides with the complicated pattern of the decline and transformation of western subject concept. Specifically, Her exploration begins from Hegel’s Philosophy and Later, under the impact of the French theory, especially Foucault’s discourse theory, to the critical interpretation of subject. In Butler’s theory, the subject is a complex system with different levels and ranges. So she tries to, with an internal critical stance and a more high fusion point of view, construct the subject theory system which agrees with her political goals. This chapter mainly focuses on her four works:Subjects of Desire, The Psychic Life of Power, Giving an Account of Oneself and Senses of the Subject and tries to explore the development of her subject theory as well as the dynamic cognition trajectory of different periods. Those four works didn’t arose much interest of people at home and abroad because their focus is mainly on philosophy but not on the most familiar and representative ones such as sex, gender, body and other issues. But now these books are going gradually into the scholars’consciousness. The topics discussed in those books include generated shaping theory of subject and power operation mechanism, the profound paradox in the context of contemporary theory, the exclusive mechanism of subject construction, the realistic concern hidden behind, the relation between subject self and others, etc. It can be said that the thinking and discussion of the subject have run through the various stages of the development of Butler’s thoughts, which constitutes the deep philosophical foundation and theoretical foundation of her cultural-political criticism. Therefore, subject theory must be the starting point of Butler’s cultural-political criticism for deeply understanding her theory and reality concern.Chapter two:Gender politics:the intervention of cultural-political criticism. The realistic concern behind Butler’s subject philosophy urges her to interpose the philosophy thinking of the subject into the specific subjects’contemporary fate in contemporary society. Starting from the subject fate of contemporary, Butler first turns to the thinking and subversion of gender subject and successfully going into feminism and identity politics. She specifies the subject as "gender subject" and explains subject theory further from the perspective of gender which makes the subversive deconstruction of feminism and identity possible, which is the theoretical opportunity of Gender Trouble coming into being. The concern of the gender subject, the successful involvement of cultural-political criticism in feminist theory, constitutes the beginning of Butler’s cultural and political criticism. This chapter, basing on Gender Trouble and related works, mainly discusses the theory and reality context of Butler’s gender political criticism, the genealogy criticism of gender discourse respectively from feminism, psychoanalysis and discursive practices, the practice theory of gender and discourse subversion strategy of parody, controversies they creates and Butler’s reaction to them. etc. Butler continues to make trouble for gender, however, she argues that trouble sometimes is not a negative word for that trouble is inevitable especially for gender and the key is how to better make trouble as well as what is the best way to living in trouble.Chapter three:Body politics:the extension of cultural-political criticism. The materiality of body is the richest controversial issue raised in Butler’s gendered political discussions, which makes Butler transfer her gender politics, her former theory focus, to the body politics, to explore the relevance of the materiality and demonstration of gender and body. The issue of body is not Butler’s original creation, but differs from the essentialism standpoint of the French feminists’body politics. Butler no longer discusses the real ontology of body but turns to explore how the body is shaped supported by Foucault’s productive framework of power politics. She believes that the body is not a static field or surface but a materiality process as well as a dynamic effect and performance field of gender discourse. It also reveals the physical boundaries body sets, the elimination it must arose and complex identity and uncertainty, which make Butler’s performative theory more controversial. In addition, Butler also puts forward a number of unresolved issues, which means that the body politics will enter a more open discourse space. This chapter, based on the clarifying of the concepts of construction, material, materiality and materialization, traces back to the lineages of two fields, the classical theory of body’s materiality and psychoanalysis and explores further the body’s resistance and it’s political meaning as well as contemporary political problems of identity subject.Chapter four:Sexual politics:the realistic turn of cultural-political criticism. Under the impact of today’s many new gender identities, Butler realizes keenly the crisis of gender theory and begins to re-examine the performative theory of gender by laying aside the gender politics in a broader theoretical domain. Taking criticism on the norm of heterosexuality hegemony as her basic point, Butler turns her focus of metaphysical level to the real life and political practice and begins to pay close attention to the practical problems such as incest taboo, new kinship and gender bridge, bisexual, gender diagnosis and sex reassignment surgery, etc. She takes aim at the norms of society itself and put criticism in the framework of human being’s survival and standing to find the cross influence of all kinds of subject norm which is also the overall trend of gender research. It is thus clear that the "new" of new gender not only refers its new forms but also refers to the continuous spreading of gender extension and its realistic turn. "New" also means that the "authenticity" of these new forms of gender has not been recognized by the reality from the perspective of Butler’s theory context. Butler believes that the discussion of sexual politics is still covered in the theoretical framework of Feminism. This chapter mainly probes into the lateral spreading and mutually staggered of Butler’s diversion, from philosophical discourse to real life, of gender politics criticism, which includes the duality of gender norms, the various forms of gender of social power structure, the strategy of eliminating gender discourse and the social transformation of theory, etc. Though this may take the risk of misunderstanding or even being dispelling, as Butler said, sometimes the risk is very necessary.Chapter five:Life politics:the tendency of cultural-political criticism. Since Butler’s cultural-political criticism involved in gender politics, it deviates constantly from the original research field and becomes a kind of movement beyond the boundaries. Butler affirms the necessity of the deviation and thinks that the movement of the boundaries themselves is seemingly the key of the research. Two reasons can explain this affirmation:one is Butler’s restless characters and the other is that she does it on purpose because she resists the solidification of subject and the same of identity. Actually this seemingly deviations of her research have intrinsic logical relationship. Butler’s ultimate concern to human life finally emerged in the call of the events of 9.11 so she extends her cultural-political criticism to the much wider social and political areas and pays close attention to the more pressing politics and ethical issues in Precarious Life, Giving an Account of Oneself, Frames of War, Dispossession:The Performative in the Political, What Does a Jew Want? On Binationalism and Other Specters, the Jewish Desire What? About Exotic Nationalism and the Other Ghost, Religion in the Public Sphere of Power and Parting Ways:Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism and other works. The interference and mending to the social politics can be regarded as Butler’s attempt. This chapter mainly discusses the reconstruction of life power in the name of life, violence, other and responsibility, two text analyses of the other politics, cultural criticism under the prospective of other view. etc. Just like subject’s never-ending wandering journey, Butler’s cultural political-criticism continues and it will bring lasting impact on the thinking of people.Chapter six:The chinalization of Butler’s cultural-political criticism. The chinalization of the western literary theory has always been a big issue in the academic circles of China. Coercive interpretation theory, which puts forwards the reflection and criticism to western literary, also provides a new theory critical path and idea for Chinese scholars to construct our own theoretical system. The chinalization of Butler’s cultural-political criticism is a very heavy task not only because Butler’s theories themselves have a lot of controversies but because Butler is not a familiar name in Chinese theoretical circles. The study of Butler in China is still in the initial stage and the overall studies of her theories as well as the research from the perspective of China are almost a blank. To the chinallizaiton of Butler’s cultural-political criticism, I will mainly focus my research on feminism and gender studies. The fact we can’t deny is that there are many problems with Chinese feminism and gender studies, but it still has something desirable. Therefore, although this chapter is named the chinalization of Butler’s cultural-political criticism., it is not just a one-way discussion of Butler’s significance to Chinese feminism criticism and gender studies, and cultural-political criticism exchanges, but starts from a higher view which is a both way journey and even circulating cultural communication, a two-way travel cycle. This chapter analyses the reverse influence Chinese feminism and gender studies on Butler’s theories so as to explore the relevant problems concerning Chinese feminism and gender discourse from the prospective of transnational feminism theory and its future development and trend should be considered earnestly in this chapter as well.