Study On Body View Of Judith Butler's Gender Theory

Judith Butler is one of the representatives of the third wave of Western Feminism.Her theory of Performativity in the 1990s broke the distinction between physical and social gender in traditional feminist theory.Sex,as well as sexed body,are the constructs of discourse.Therefore,"body" is an important critical dimension in her theory.Butler established her own body theory through the theory of gender performance.Butler's body theory is a reflection and critique of feminist and philosophical traditions,and it is the starting point for thinking about the discursive lives and possibilities of the the bodies.This paper studies Butler's view of "body" in gender theory through three chapters.First,it explains the context and main viewpoints of western philosophy and feminist view of body,and makes clear the starting point and reflective object of Butler's body criticism.The western metaphysical tradition of mind-body dualism and the feminist tradition of biological gender/social gender dualism are the objects of Butler's criticism,in which the female body suffered a double degradation.At the same time,according to Butler's interpretation of Beauvoir,the theory of the body also contains the subversion of itself in the debate between historical development and numerous theorists.Secondly,after a general description of the historical background of body theory,this paper focuses on Butler's gender theory and systematically discusses her body theory.It is divided into three parts.One is the key concept of butler's body criticism--materiality.Butler believed that the materiality of the body is not the material substance outside the language,but the materialization process of discourse.The etymology of matter shows that materiality and signification are inseparable,and the relation between body and discourse is that the body acquires intelligibility through discourse.The second part then discusses how the body establishes its consistency,wholeness,and internality through discourse.These three which intersect with each other are the three emphases of the construction of the body,as well as the identity.Thus,the body becomes the surface projection of the discourse.Among them,the ideality of discourse norms and the fictionality of body form are the basis of body subversion.The third part discusses the subversive strategies proposed by Butler,including the lesbian phallus,the heterogeneous body and dressing,and the re-signification.According to Butler,agency does not depend on the subject,but is contained in the process of body action,in the repeated imitation and action of discourse norms,and the possibility emerges from the power system.Therefore,the subversion strategy of the body is represented by the displacement and parody of power.Finally,this paper tries to summarize two basic characteristics of butler's body theory:discourse and temporality.On the one hand,in the dialectical relationship between body and discourse,discourse determines the boundary and intelligibility of the body at the same time.On the other hand,butler's body theory criticizes presentism,affirms the political potential of "fantasy",and shows the importance of the temporal dimension of the future.