Bonnie Mann
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195187458
- eISBN:
- 9780199786565
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195187458.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
In the 1980s, this book contends, an uncritical affirmation of anti-essentialism turned this important feminist critique into a disciplinary dogmatism that constrained and homogenized feminist ...
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In the 1980s, this book contends, an uncritical affirmation of anti-essentialism turned this important feminist critique into a disciplinary dogmatism that constrained and homogenized feminist thinking. Feminist work in the academy became forgetful of both women and nature, and began to exchange an engaged politics for the intensity of sublime experience in its postmodern form. This book works between the modern and postmodern notions of the sublime to show that the gendered politics and effacement of nature, central to the modern sublime, especially in Kant's account, are at the heart of the postmodern sublime as well. It turns to Lyotard's postmodern sublime to argue that this sublime is hard at work in feminist poststructuralism, especially the early texts of Judith Butler. The melting away of the extra-discursively real in these accounts tends to make feminist thinking incapable of meaningfully articulating our relations to the natural world and to one another. Yet these very relations are necessarily tied to powerful aesthetic experiences of beauty and sublimity.Less
In the 1980s, this book contends, an uncritical affirmation of anti-essentialism turned this important feminist critique into a disciplinary dogmatism that constrained and homogenized feminist thinking. Feminist work in the academy became forgetful of both women and nature, and began to exchange an engaged politics for the intensity of sublime experience in its postmodern form. This book works between the modern and postmodern notions of the sublime to show that the gendered politics and effacement of nature, central to the modern sublime, especially in Kant's account, are at the heart of the postmodern sublime as well. It turns to Lyotard's postmodern sublime to argue that this sublime is hard at work in feminist poststructuralism, especially the early texts of Judith Butler. The melting away of the extra-discursively real in these accounts tends to make feminist thinking incapable of meaningfully articulating our relations to the natural world and to one another. Yet these very relations are necessarily tied to powerful aesthetic experiences of beauty and sublimity.
David Kyuman Kim
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195319828
- eISBN:
- 9780199785667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195319828.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter focuses on an alternative vision of agency found in what has come to be called the politics of difference. It presents a critical engagement with one of the most influential contemporary ...
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This chapter focuses on an alternative vision of agency found in what has come to be called the politics of difference. It presents a critical engagement with one of the most influential contemporary theorists of agency: Judith Butler. The chapter begins with some background on the politics of difference, specifically in the context of how it developed within feminist theory. It then moves to a sketch of Butler's work on agency, specifically her theory of performativity: from her early critiques of subjectivity and the (near) totalizing effects she grants to power, to her more recent work that nuances the claims about power and agency, specifically in light of her use and appropriation of the idea of melancholy/melancholia. It is argued that a comparison between Taylor and Butler shows how each of their projects begins with distinctive forms of melancholy that create the conditions for the possibility of agency. Butler's focus on the relationship between the social and the psyche/psychic life is a search for possibility and hope under conditions of subjection by power. This search also effectively marks Butler's work as a project of regenerating agency.Less
This chapter focuses on an alternative vision of agency found in what has come to be called the politics of difference. It presents a critical engagement with one of the most influential contemporary theorists of agency: Judith Butler. The chapter begins with some background on the politics of difference, specifically in the context of how it developed within feminist theory. It then moves to a sketch of Butler's work on agency, specifically her theory of performativity: from her early critiques of subjectivity and the (near) totalizing effects she grants to power, to her more recent work that nuances the claims about power and agency, specifically in light of her use and appropriation of the idea of melancholy/melancholia. It is argued that a comparison between Taylor and Butler shows how each of their projects begins with distinctive forms of melancholy that create the conditions for the possibility of agency. Butler's focus on the relationship between the social and the psyche/psychic life is a search for possibility and hope under conditions of subjection by power. This search also effectively marks Butler's work as a project of regenerating agency.
Jennifer Erin Beste
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195311099
- eISBN:
- 9780199871117
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311099.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter brings into the conversation between trauma theory and theology a third conversation partner: feminist theory. It examines certain feminist conceptions of self and agency that differ ...
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This chapter brings into the conversation between trauma theory and theology a third conversation partner: feminist theory. It examines certain feminist conceptions of self and agency that differ from Rahner's theological anthropology. Since feminist theory has been concerned with ways that varied forms of oppression (a type of interpersonal harm) and violence against women impact women's sense of self and agency, it is important to explore whether feminists shed any light on the dynamics of traumatization and recovery from traumatic violence. Paying particular attention to Judith Butler's and Diana Meyers's accounts of the self and agency, this chapter identifies certain insights from feminist theory that resonate with the findings of trauma research.Less
This chapter brings into the conversation between trauma theory and theology a third conversation partner: feminist theory. It examines certain feminist conceptions of self and agency that differ from Rahner's theological anthropology. Since feminist theory has been concerned with ways that varied forms of oppression (a type of interpersonal harm) and violence against women impact women's sense of self and agency, it is important to explore whether feminists shed any light on the dynamics of traumatization and recovery from traumatic violence. Paying particular attention to Judith Butler's and Diana Meyers's accounts of the self and agency, this chapter identifies certain insights from feminist theory that resonate with the findings of trauma research.
Bonnie Mann
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195187458
- eISBN:
- 9780199786565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195187458.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter focuses on a feminist account of the body that returns it to its flesh and blood, while taking into account the theoretical developments that turned the body into a text. Topics ...
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This chapter focuses on a feminist account of the body that returns it to its flesh and blood, while taking into account the theoretical developments that turned the body into a text. Topics discussed include history notes on feminism and the body, Judith Butler's work and the textualization of the body, Butler on Merleau-Ponty, and Merleau-Ponty on the body and place.Less
This chapter focuses on a feminist account of the body that returns it to its flesh and blood, while taking into account the theoretical developments that turned the body into a text. Topics discussed include history notes on feminism and the body, Judith Butler's work and the textualization of the body, Butler on Merleau-Ponty, and Merleau-Ponty on the body and place.
Bonnie Mann
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195187458
- eISBN:
- 9780199786565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195187458.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Judith Butler's early work in order to clarify some central stakes (or mis-takes) of feminist postmodernism. It begins by acknowledging and responding to her insistence that ...
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This chapter focuses on Judith Butler's early work in order to clarify some central stakes (or mis-takes) of feminist postmodernism. It begins by acknowledging and responding to her insistence that the term “postmodernism” is misleading and masks a “ruse of authority” that distorts rather than clarifies the issues at hand. It is argued that establishing the feminist postmodern over and against a foreclosed“essentialism” amounts to a disavowal of the realm of necessity. A dual conception of “nature” as “human nature” and the natural world is foreclosed at the moment that inaugurates the textual space in which feminist postmodernism sets to work. This disavowed realm returns on the inside of Butler's theory as a discursive “nature,” which makes constant trouble in regards to the subject's agency, the subject's freedom. It is shown that Butler's approach to the relation between extradiscursive being and speech authorizes the displacement of feminism from its foundation, but not a foundation in the unitary subject so much as a foundation in a certain set of historical projects. The return of the repressed realm of necessity (or otherwise said, the repressed relation to the earth) in Butler's early texts, its return as discursive determinacy, pushes toward exactly what Butler turns to in her later work: the theme of embodied vulnerability in relation to other persons.Less
This chapter focuses on Judith Butler's early work in order to clarify some central stakes (or mis-takes) of feminist postmodernism. It begins by acknowledging and responding to her insistence that the term “postmodernism” is misleading and masks a “ruse of authority” that distorts rather than clarifies the issues at hand. It is argued that establishing the feminist postmodern over and against a foreclosed“essentialism” amounts to a disavowal of the realm of necessity. A dual conception of “nature” as “human nature” and the natural world is foreclosed at the moment that inaugurates the textual space in which feminist postmodernism sets to work. This disavowed realm returns on the inside of Butler's theory as a discursive “nature,” which makes constant trouble in regards to the subject's agency, the subject's freedom. It is shown that Butler's approach to the relation between extradiscursive being and speech authorizes the displacement of feminism from its foundation, but not a foundation in the unitary subject so much as a foundation in a certain set of historical projects. The return of the repressed realm of necessity (or otherwise said, the repressed relation to the earth) in Butler's early texts, its return as discursive determinacy, pushes toward exactly what Butler turns to in her later work: the theme of embodied vulnerability in relation to other persons.
Margaret D. Kamitsuka
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195311624
- eISBN:
- 9780199785643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311624.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter interrogates the assumption of natural maleness and femaleness found in feminist theological writings on the imago dei and so-called women's sin. A sex binarism is problematic because of ...
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This chapter interrogates the assumption of natural maleness and femaleness found in feminist theological writings on the imago dei and so-called women's sin. A sex binarism is problematic because of its link to heteronormativity (the notion that heterosexuality is the only legitimate form of sexual desire) and thus to heterosexism. Judith Butler's poststructuralist theory of performativity is used to deconstruct that sex binarism. The theory of performative sexed identity is applied theologically in order to reformulate the notions of sin and women's creation in the image of God. The chapter's critical examination of Grace Jantzen's alternative proposals about women's selfhood and desires opens up a larger issue of how in the process of rethinking sex, sin, and the imago dei, the feminist theologian can rediscover desire for the tradition itself.Less
This chapter interrogates the assumption of natural maleness and femaleness found in feminist theological writings on the imago dei and so-called women's sin. A sex binarism is problematic because of its link to heteronormativity (the notion that heterosexuality is the only legitimate form of sexual desire) and thus to heterosexism. Judith Butler's poststructuralist theory of performativity is used to deconstruct that sex binarism. The theory of performative sexed identity is applied theologically in order to reformulate the notions of sin and women's creation in the image of God. The chapter's critical examination of Grace Jantzen's alternative proposals about women's selfhood and desires opens up a larger issue of how in the process of rethinking sex, sin, and the imago dei, the feminist theologian can rediscover desire for the tradition itself.
David Kyuman Kim
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195319828
- eISBN:
- 9780199785667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195319828.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter examines Taylor's and Butler's accounts of melancholy and agency. It is argued that the form of melancholy shared by their accounts is a key feature of symbolic loss in the constitution ...
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This chapter examines Taylor's and Butler's accounts of melancholy and agency. It is argued that the form of melancholy shared by their accounts is a key feature of symbolic loss in the constitution of the self, and symbolic loss has a central role in creating the conditions for the possibility of new modes of agency. The convention in appropriating melancholy follows the comparative example Freud established between mourning and melancholia (melancholy), in which the character of loss and the reluctance to give up on an object of love in the latter (melancholia/melancholy) takes its lead and form from the former (mourning).Less
This chapter examines Taylor's and Butler's accounts of melancholy and agency. It is argued that the form of melancholy shared by their accounts is a key feature of symbolic loss in the constitution of the self, and symbolic loss has a central role in creating the conditions for the possibility of new modes of agency. The convention in appropriating melancholy follows the comparative example Freud established between mourning and melancholia (melancholy), in which the character of loss and the reluctance to give up on an object of love in the latter (melancholia/melancholy) takes its lead and form from the former (mourning).
David Kyuman Kim
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195319828
- eISBN:
- 9780199785667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195319828.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Agency as melancholic freedom is deeply ambivalent. It speaks to the uncanny experience of feeling indebted to, yet alienated from, the glorious legacies of modernity: the legacies of liberation, ...
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Agency as melancholic freedom is deeply ambivalent. It speaks to the uncanny experience of feeling indebted to, yet alienated from, the glorious legacies of modernity: the legacies of liberation, emancipation, and autonomy. Late modern and postmodern agency share a concern for the banality of freedom, i.e., the loss of urgency that once attended the great struggles for freedom and emancipation from the forces of oppressive authority and dehumanizing domination. Given the banality of freedom — that is, the ways in which we speak about freedom either through hollow words or in hushed, sotto voce tones — it would seem that it is impossible to avoid talking about ambivalence when raising the subject of agency in our times. This chapter brings Taylor and Butler — both of whom express a fair degree of ambivalence — into conversation with another theorist of ambivalence, Max Weber. It is argued that the sotto voce of the banality of freedom sings with the modern prophetic spirit/soul described by Weber.Less
Agency as melancholic freedom is deeply ambivalent. It speaks to the uncanny experience of feeling indebted to, yet alienated from, the glorious legacies of modernity: the legacies of liberation, emancipation, and autonomy. Late modern and postmodern agency share a concern for the banality of freedom, i.e., the loss of urgency that once attended the great struggles for freedom and emancipation from the forces of oppressive authority and dehumanizing domination. Given the banality of freedom — that is, the ways in which we speak about freedom either through hollow words or in hushed, sotto voce tones — it would seem that it is impossible to avoid talking about ambivalence when raising the subject of agency in our times. This chapter brings Taylor and Butler — both of whom express a fair degree of ambivalence — into conversation with another theorist of ambivalence, Max Weber. It is argued that the sotto voce of the banality of freedom sings with the modern prophetic spirit/soul described by Weber.
Margaret D. Kamitsuka
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195311624
- eISBN:
- 9780199785643
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311624.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
How can we respect the irreducible diversity of women's experiences and unmask entrenched forms of privilege in feminist theological discourse? This book offers proposals on how to address the ...
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How can we respect the irreducible diversity of women's experiences and unmask entrenched forms of privilege in feminist theological discourse? This book offers proposals on how to address the challenge of difference for constructive theological purposes. Toward this end, the objective of this book is three-fold: 1) to make the case for why ongoing attentiveness to differences of race and sexuality is needed in order to avoid the imposition of white racial privilege and heterosexual privilege; 2) to make creative use of poststructuralism principally (Judith Butler, Michel Foucault), but also postcolonial, queer, and other theoretical resources in order to complicate our understanding of embodied selfhood, moral agency, and empowerment; and 3) to make constructive proposals in light of those theories on methodological issues (e.g., appeals to women's experience, to the erotic, or to women's solidarity), on hermeneutical issues (e.g., white feminist uses of the literature of women of color or interpreting biblical texts that harbor patriarchal, imperialist, heteronormative, and other biases), and on doctrinal issues (e.g., sin, creation in the image of God, and christology). New theoretical resources are indispensable for analyzing divisive issues in feminist theology today, and for carving out new avenues for critical negotiation with a religious tradition that feminists see as both alienating and sustaining, repressive and empowering.Less
How can we respect the irreducible diversity of women's experiences and unmask entrenched forms of privilege in feminist theological discourse? This book offers proposals on how to address the challenge of difference for constructive theological purposes. Toward this end, the objective of this book is three-fold: 1) to make the case for why ongoing attentiveness to differences of race and sexuality is needed in order to avoid the imposition of white racial privilege and heterosexual privilege; 2) to make creative use of poststructuralism principally (Judith Butler, Michel Foucault), but also postcolonial, queer, and other theoretical resources in order to complicate our understanding of embodied selfhood, moral agency, and empowerment; and 3) to make constructive proposals in light of those theories on methodological issues (e.g., appeals to women's experience, to the erotic, or to women's solidarity), on hermeneutical issues (e.g., white feminist uses of the literature of women of color or interpreting biblical texts that harbor patriarchal, imperialist, heteronormative, and other biases), and on doctrinal issues (e.g., sin, creation in the image of God, and christology). New theoretical resources are indispensable for analyzing divisive issues in feminist theology today, and for carving out new avenues for critical negotiation with a religious tradition that feminists see as both alienating and sustaining, repressive and empowering.
Bonnie Mann
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195187458
- eISBN:
- 9780199786565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195187458.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter takes up the notion of vulnerability in the face of alterity that is the foundation for Freeman's “feminine sublime.” It traces similar notions in Butler's book of post-9/11 essays, ...
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This chapter takes up the notion of vulnerability in the face of alterity that is the foundation for Freeman's “feminine sublime.” It traces similar notions in Butler's book of post-9/11 essays, Precarious Life, and in Eva Kittay's ground-breaking book in feminist care ethics, Love's Labor. It is argued that the dependence these authors find at the very heart of our intersubjective relationships is also at the heart of our relationship to the natural world — and that these relations of dependence are the irrevocable aspect of the human condition that both lends itself to and is disclosed in sublime experience. The ethical and political implications of this vulnerability to others can be temporarily denied or thwarted by the subject who flees dependence, but they must ultimately be affirmed if we are to live these relations in aesthetically, ethically, and politically sustainable ways.Less
This chapter takes up the notion of vulnerability in the face of alterity that is the foundation for Freeman's “feminine sublime.” It traces similar notions in Butler's book of post-9/11 essays, Precarious Life, and in Eva Kittay's ground-breaking book in feminist care ethics, Love's Labor. It is argued that the dependence these authors find at the very heart of our intersubjective relationships is also at the heart of our relationship to the natural world — and that these relations of dependence are the irrevocable aspect of the human condition that both lends itself to and is disclosed in sublime experience. The ethical and political implications of this vulnerability to others can be temporarily denied or thwarted by the subject who flees dependence, but they must ultimately be affirmed if we are to live these relations in aesthetically, ethically, and politically sustainable ways.
Annika Thiem
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823228980
- eISBN:
- 9780823235865
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823228980.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
Moral philosophy and poststructuralism have long been considered two antithetical enterprises. Moral philosophy is invested in securing norms, whereas poststructuralism attempts to ...
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Moral philosophy and poststructuralism have long been considered two antithetical enterprises. Moral philosophy is invested in securing norms, whereas poststructuralism attempts to unclench the grip of norms on our lives. Moreover, poststructuralism is often suspected of undoing the possibility of ethical knowledge by emphasizing the unstable, socially constructed nature of our practices and knowledge. This book argues that Judith Butler's work makes possible a productive encounter between moral philosophy and poststructuralism, rethinking responsibility and critique as key concepts at the juncture of ethics and politics. Putting into conversation Butler's earlier and most recent work, this book begins by examining how Butler's critique of the subject as nontransparent to itself, formed thoroughly through relations of power and in subjection to norms and social practices, poses a challenge to ethics and ethical agency. The book argues, in conversation with Butler, Levinas, and Laplanche, that responsibility becomes possible only when we do not know what to do or how to respond, yet find ourselves under a demand to respond, and even more, to respond well to others. Drawing on the work of Butler, Adorno, and Foucault, the book examines critique as a central practice for moral philosophy. It interrogates the limits of moral and political knowledge and probes methods of social criticism to uncover and oppose injustices.Less
Moral philosophy and poststructuralism have long been considered two antithetical enterprises. Moral philosophy is invested in securing norms, whereas poststructuralism attempts to unclench the grip of norms on our lives. Moreover, poststructuralism is often suspected of undoing the possibility of ethical knowledge by emphasizing the unstable, socially constructed nature of our practices and knowledge. This book argues that Judith Butler's work makes possible a productive encounter between moral philosophy and poststructuralism, rethinking responsibility and critique as key concepts at the juncture of ethics and politics. Putting into conversation Butler's earlier and most recent work, this book begins by examining how Butler's critique of the subject as nontransparent to itself, formed thoroughly through relations of power and in subjection to norms and social practices, poses a challenge to ethics and ethical agency. The book argues, in conversation with Butler, Levinas, and Laplanche, that responsibility becomes possible only when we do not know what to do or how to respond, yet find ourselves under a demand to respond, and even more, to respond well to others. Drawing on the work of Butler, Adorno, and Foucault, the book examines critique as a central practice for moral philosophy. It interrogates the limits of moral and political knowledge and probes methods of social criticism to uncover and oppose injustices.
Seyla Benhabib
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691167251
- eISBN:
- 9780691184234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691167251.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter talks about how the announcement that Judith Butler was awarded the Adorno Prize of the city of Frankfurt led to an intense controversy that engulfed officials of the German-Jewish and ...
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This chapter talks about how the announcement that Judith Butler was awarded the Adorno Prize of the city of Frankfurt led to an intense controversy that engulfed officials of the German-Jewish and Israeli communities, members of academia, journalists, and public intellectuals. At issue was whether, given her support of the Israel Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), Butler should have been honored in the name of a Jewish-German refugee and one of the revered founders of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. Nonetheless, Butler's achievement is to retrieve ethical imperatives toward a vision of cohabitation by reviving Jewish memories of exile and persecution, in that she reexamines long-forgotten distinctions between cultural and political Zionism.Less
This chapter talks about how the announcement that Judith Butler was awarded the Adorno Prize of the city of Frankfurt led to an intense controversy that engulfed officials of the German-Jewish and Israeli communities, members of academia, journalists, and public intellectuals. At issue was whether, given her support of the Israel Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), Butler should have been honored in the name of a Jewish-German refugee and one of the revered founders of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. Nonetheless, Butler's achievement is to retrieve ethical imperatives toward a vision of cohabitation by reviving Jewish memories of exile and persecution, in that she reexamines long-forgotten distinctions between cultural and political Zionism.
Michael Patrick Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195333527
- eISBN:
- 9780199868896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195333527.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Chapter 5 presents a reading of David Lodge's novel Therapy (1995) in light of Balthasar's Theo‐logic. Lodge does well to illustrate that the erasure of God that preoccupies postmodern consciousness ...
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Chapter 5 presents a reading of David Lodge's novel Therapy (1995) in light of Balthasar's Theo‐logic. Lodge does well to illustrate that the erasure of God that preoccupies postmodern consciousness significantly affects contemporary conceptions about “subject formation” and “people in relation.” Lodge develops these themes by constructing a narrative that mirrors both the theological trajectory of Balthasar's tripartite program and the existential progression identified by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard—namely, the aesthetic, ethical, and religious “stages” of human experience. Importantly, a close consideration of Kierkegaard's stages reveals a direct analogy with the transcendentals, which, in turn, illuminates one of the many reasons why Balthasar admired Kierkegaard and why Lodge's novel is a fertile literary example of Balthasar's Theologic. By a close consideration of the triadic structure of being presented by a variety of sources, the chapter begins to discern how God's logic—how human logic—exists in a trinitarian dynamic.Less
Chapter 5 presents a reading of David Lodge's novel Therapy (1995) in light of Balthasar's Theo‐logic. Lodge does well to illustrate that the erasure of God that preoccupies postmodern consciousness significantly affects contemporary conceptions about “subject formation” and “people in relation.” Lodge develops these themes by constructing a narrative that mirrors both the theological trajectory of Balthasar's tripartite program and the existential progression identified by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard—namely, the aesthetic, ethical, and religious “stages” of human experience. Importantly, a close consideration of Kierkegaard's stages reveals a direct analogy with the transcendentals, which, in turn, illuminates one of the many reasons why Balthasar admired Kierkegaard and why Lodge's novel is a fertile literary example of Balthasar's Theologic. By a close consideration of the triadic structure of being presented by a variety of sources, the chapter begins to discern how God's logic—how human logic—exists in a trinitarian dynamic.
Karen Zivi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199826414
- eISBN:
- 9780199919437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199826414.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Democratization
This chapter explores the performativity of the claims in the context of the debate over same-sex marriage. It analyzes rights claims made by both proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage rights ...
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This chapter explores the performativity of the claims in the context of the debate over same-sex marriage. It analyzes rights claims made by both proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage rights to illuminate the ways in which making rights claims allows for the contestation and reconstitution of the meaning of democratic citizenship. This chapter thus offers a rejoinder to left critics of rights, such as Michael Warner and Wendy Brown, who worry that rights claiming reinforces state power and undermines democratic freedom, and it does so, in part, by offering a new interpretation of Michel Foucault’s notion of disciplinary power and his position on rights. It also works with the arguments of Judith Butler to further develop the perlocutionary and persuasive dimensions of the act of rights claiming.Less
This chapter explores the performativity of the claims in the context of the debate over same-sex marriage. It analyzes rights claims made by both proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage rights to illuminate the ways in which making rights claims allows for the contestation and reconstitution of the meaning of democratic citizenship. This chapter thus offers a rejoinder to left critics of rights, such as Michael Warner and Wendy Brown, who worry that rights claiming reinforces state power and undermines democratic freedom, and it does so, in part, by offering a new interpretation of Michel Foucault’s notion of disciplinary power and his position on rights. It also works with the arguments of Judith Butler to further develop the perlocutionary and persuasive dimensions of the act of rights claiming.
Ramsay Burt
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195386691
- eISBN:
- 9780199863600
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386691.003.0006
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Ramsay Burt interrogates normative definitions of masculinity in ethical perspective by a close reading of two modern dance solos: Joe Goode's performance of his 29 Effeminate Gestures, and Pina ...
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Ramsay Burt interrogates normative definitions of masculinity in ethical perspective by a close reading of two modern dance solos: Joe Goode's performance of his 29 Effeminate Gestures, and Pina Bausch's Der Fensterputzer, performed by Dominique Mercy. Calling on the theoretical concepts of Judith Butler, Peggy Phelan, and Mieke Bal, Burt shows how each solo troubles gender norms by exploiting the power of unmarked masculinity, especially how the breaking up of the binary of “presence” and “absence” can destabilize conventional expectations of performance. Such strategies can draw on history and memory to transform masculinity as a singular ideal into the plural idea of “masculinities,” which are social and cultural performances that change continually.Less
Ramsay Burt interrogates normative definitions of masculinity in ethical perspective by a close reading of two modern dance solos: Joe Goode's performance of his 29 Effeminate Gestures, and Pina Bausch's Der Fensterputzer, performed by Dominique Mercy. Calling on the theoretical concepts of Judith Butler, Peggy Phelan, and Mieke Bal, Burt shows how each solo troubles gender norms by exploiting the power of unmarked masculinity, especially how the breaking up of the binary of “presence” and “absence” can destabilize conventional expectations of performance. Such strategies can draw on history and memory to transform masculinity as a singular ideal into the plural idea of “masculinities,” which are social and cultural performances that change continually.
Moya Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780748678846
- eISBN:
- 9781474412438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748678846.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter explores the connections between corporeal vulnerability and ecstatic relationality, and their implications for politics and ethics. It argues that focusing exclusively on vulnerability ...
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This chapter explores the connections between corporeal vulnerability and ecstatic relationality, and their implications for politics and ethics. It argues that focusing exclusively on vulnerability as injury is to overlook a second sense of vulnerability at work in Butler’s writings: vulnerability as impressionability, which it is argued is central to her understanding of both politics and ethics. It also examines the question of how it is possible to practise ethics and politics in conditions of precarity, and particularly when a specific vulnerability may be neither perceived nor recognized. What, it asks, might be done to facilitate ethical responsiveness in such contexts?Less
This chapter explores the connections between corporeal vulnerability and ecstatic relationality, and their implications for politics and ethics. It argues that focusing exclusively on vulnerability as injury is to overlook a second sense of vulnerability at work in Butler’s writings: vulnerability as impressionability, which it is argued is central to her understanding of both politics and ethics. It also examines the question of how it is possible to practise ethics and politics in conditions of precarity, and particularly when a specific vulnerability may be neither perceived nor recognized. What, it asks, might be done to facilitate ethical responsiveness in such contexts?
Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Having considered the theorisation of performativity by Judith Butler and Mary Louise Pratt, this chapter uses theatrical performances both in the fictional writing of Colette and Rachilde and in the ...
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Having considered the theorisation of performativity by Judith Butler and Mary Louise Pratt, this chapter uses theatrical performances both in the fictional writing of Colette and Rachilde and in the travelogues of Isabelle Eberhardt to demonstrate how performance and performativity intertwine in the disorderly motion of vagabondage. The second section examines the Orient as a staging space for female movement, where a potent form of gender proxemics comes into play between the body of the woman travel writer and her Oriental subjects. The travelogue becomes a location of misfiring gender constructions, temporary contact zones and dramatic destruction. Finally, the chapter explores the disconcerting effects produced when textuality and the female body in motion collide in vagabondage travelogues.Less
Having considered the theorisation of performativity by Judith Butler and Mary Louise Pratt, this chapter uses theatrical performances both in the fictional writing of Colette and Rachilde and in the travelogues of Isabelle Eberhardt to demonstrate how performance and performativity intertwine in the disorderly motion of vagabondage. The second section examines the Orient as a staging space for female movement, where a potent form of gender proxemics comes into play between the body of the woman travel writer and her Oriental subjects. The travelogue becomes a location of misfiring gender constructions, temporary contact zones and dramatic destruction. Finally, the chapter explores the disconcerting effects produced when textuality and the female body in motion collide in vagabondage travelogues.
B. Diane Lipsett
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199754519
- eISBN:
- 9780199827213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199754519.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The chapter offers a close analysis of The Acts of Paul and Thecla, tracing how desire, restraint, and narrative transformation intersect with depictions of virginity, maternity, and masculinity. ...
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The chapter offers a close analysis of The Acts of Paul and Thecla, tracing how desire, restraint, and narrative transformation intersect with depictions of virginity, maternity, and masculinity. Select comparisons are made to the Greek romances Daphnis and Chloe and Leucippe and Clitophon as well as to The Acts of Peter and The Acts of Andrew. In Thecla’s fast-paced tale with minimal interiority, desire destabilizes the protagonist and propels conversion: social reidentification, ritual act, changes in language, changes in the self. Self-restraint and resurrection (companion values in this narrative) are not the antidotes to Thecla’s desire, but its objects. The reading is also informed by selections from several literary interpreters, including Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva, as they draw from psychoanalytic views of desire’s displacements, movements and returns.Less
The chapter offers a close analysis of The Acts of Paul and Thecla, tracing how desire, restraint, and narrative transformation intersect with depictions of virginity, maternity, and masculinity. Select comparisons are made to the Greek romances Daphnis and Chloe and Leucippe and Clitophon as well as to The Acts of Peter and The Acts of Andrew. In Thecla’s fast-paced tale with minimal interiority, desire destabilizes the protagonist and propels conversion: social reidentification, ritual act, changes in language, changes in the self. Self-restraint and resurrection (companion values in this narrative) are not the antidotes to Thecla’s desire, but its objects. The reading is also informed by selections from several literary interpreters, including Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva, as they draw from psychoanalytic views of desire’s displacements, movements and returns.
Lisa Siraganian
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199796557
- eISBN:
- 9780199932542
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199796557.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The coda extends Olson’s and Baraka’s theories of breath and bodily incorporation from the previous chapter to quite different forms of contemporary writing, ranging from Native American Leslie ...
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The coda extends Olson’s and Baraka’s theories of breath and bodily incorporation from the previous chapter to quite different forms of contemporary writing, ranging from Native American Leslie Marmon Silko’s photo-poems, Sacred Water (1993), Juliana Spahr’s post-9/11 poem, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs (2005), to the various theoretical reappraisals of universalism in Judith Butler’s political theory and in Alain Badiou’s Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (2003). We see that Olson and Baraka anticipate various recent attempts in art, literature, and critical theory to depict communitarian or other forms of social connection via breath or particularity in order to avoid universalism. This attempt is examined, critiqued, and contextualized. The Coda suggests that the aesthetic and political debates that Modernism’s Other Work explores continue in various texts and theoretical discussions ongoing today.Less
The coda extends Olson’s and Baraka’s theories of breath and bodily incorporation from the previous chapter to quite different forms of contemporary writing, ranging from Native American Leslie Marmon Silko’s photo-poems, Sacred Water (1993), Juliana Spahr’s post-9/11 poem, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs (2005), to the various theoretical reappraisals of universalism in Judith Butler’s political theory and in Alain Badiou’s Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (2003). We see that Olson and Baraka anticipate various recent attempts in art, literature, and critical theory to depict communitarian or other forms of social connection via breath or particularity in order to avoid universalism. This attempt is examined, critiqued, and contextualized. The Coda suggests that the aesthetic and political debates that Modernism’s Other Work explores continue in various texts and theoretical discussions ongoing today.
Michael P. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195333527
- eISBN:
- 9780199868896
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195333527.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The turn of the millennium has brought with it a vigorous revival in the interdisciplinary study of theology and art. The notion of a Catholic imagination, however, as a specific category of ...
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The turn of the millennium has brought with it a vigorous revival in the interdisciplinary study of theology and art. The notion of a Catholic imagination, however, as a specific category of aesthetics, lacks thematic and theological coherence. More often, the idea of a Catholic imagination functions at this time as a deeply felt intuition about the organic connections that exist among theological insights, cultural background, and literary expression. The book explores the many ways that the theological work of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) provides the model, content, and optic for demonstrating the credibility and range of a Catholic imagination. Since Balthasar views arts and literatures precisely as theologies, the book surveys a broad array of poetry, drama, fiction, and film and sets these readings against the central aspects of Balthasar's theological program. A major consequence of this study is the recovery of the legitimate place of a distinct “theological imagination” in the critical study of literary and narrative art. The book also argues that Balthasar's voice both complements and challenges contemporary critical theory and contends that postmodern interpretive methodology, with its careful critique of entrenched philosophical assumptions and reiterated codes of meaning, is not the threat to theological meaning that many fear. On the contrary, postmodernism can provide both literary critics and theologians alike with the tools that assess, challenge, and celebrate the theological imagination as it is depicted in literary art today.Less
The turn of the millennium has brought with it a vigorous revival in the interdisciplinary study of theology and art. The notion of a Catholic imagination, however, as a specific category of aesthetics, lacks thematic and theological coherence. More often, the idea of a Catholic imagination functions at this time as a deeply felt intuition about the organic connections that exist among theological insights, cultural background, and literary expression. The book explores the many ways that the theological work of Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905–1988) provides the model, content, and optic for demonstrating the credibility and range of a Catholic imagination. Since Balthasar views arts and literatures precisely as theologies, the book surveys a broad array of poetry, drama, fiction, and film and sets these readings against the central aspects of Balthasar's theological program. A major consequence of this study is the recovery of the legitimate place of a distinct “theological imagination” in the critical study of literary and narrative art. The book also argues that Balthasar's voice both complements and challenges contemporary critical theory and contends that postmodern interpretive methodology, with its careful critique of entrenched philosophical assumptions and reiterated codes of meaning, is not the threat to theological meaning that many fear. On the contrary, postmodernism can provide both literary critics and theologians alike with the tools that assess, challenge, and celebrate the theological imagination as it is depicted in literary art today.
