A Study On Judith Butler’s Theory Of Gender Performativity

As one of the spokespersons on Postmodernism, Judith Butler is famous for her theory of Gender Performativity, which is valuable for the Marxist Feminism with her another theory called Queer Theory. Based on the Foucault’s theory of Genealogy and Lacan’s theory of Psychoanalysis, the theory of Gender Performativity is the inheritance of her subject theory. This paper is to make a further research on Butler’s subject theory to her theory of Gender Performativity.This paper is formed of two parts. The first part is Introduction which generally introduces the topic basis and the significance of the paper. and also organizes the literature review of this topic. The second part is constituted of three chapters. Chapter One presents the introduction of theory of "gender" and "subject" on which gender is based. This chapter concludes two parts:the first part is to introduce the generation of "gender", the establishment and development of "gender" in Feminism and the criticisms of "gender" from Postmodern Feminism; the second part is to introduce the theory of "subject" on which "gender"is based, mainly explaining the development of Hegel’s views of "desire"and the relation of master and slave. Chapter Two mainly introduces Butler’s theory of Gender Performativity, which is formed of three parts. The first part is written to explain her theory of subject according to her work------The Psychic Life of Power. The second and third partsare written based on Butler’s most renowned work------Gender Trouble, which actually is the application of Butler’s theory of subject in gender area. In this work, Butler criticizes and summarizes multi-areas gender viewpoints from traditional feminism to theory of Psychoanalysis, and digs out the worthy message to form her unique theory of Gender Performativity. Chapter Three is the evaluation of Butler’s theory of Gender Performativity from its contribution and limitation to the development of gender theory, comparing with the gender standpoint raised by scholars from Marxist Feminism.When studying Butler’s theory of Gender Performativity, we should absorb its positive elements and also envisage its negative way in developing gender theory. Then we can work hard to overcome its limitation in our further study.