Butler, Judith 1956-

Gender trouble : feminism and the subversion of identity by Judith Butler ( Book )
76 editions published between 1989 and 2010 in 8 languages and held by 2,061 libraries worldwide
One of the key works of contemporary feminist theory, essential for anyone interested in the study of gender, queer theory, or the politics of sexuality in culture.

Bodies that matter : on the discursive limits of "sex by Judith Butler ( Book )
22 editions published between 1993 and 2011 in 6 languages and held by 1,149 libraries worldwide
In Bodies That Matter, renowned theorist and philosopher Judith Butler argues that theories of gender need to return to€the most "material" dimension of sex and sexuality: the body. Butler offers a brilliant reworking of the body, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the "matter" of bodies, sex, and gender.

Undoing gender by Judith Butler ( Book )
23 editions published between 2004 and 2009 in 6 languages and held by 1,084 libraries worldwide
Butler addresses the regulation of sexuality and gender that takes place in psychology, aesthetics, and social policy. These essays deepen her treatment of issues introduced by earlier work on the relationship between power and the body, the meaning & purpose of the incest taboo, and the problems of kinship.

What's left of theory? new work on the politics of literary theory ( Book )
14 editions published in 2000 in English and held by 841 libraries worldwide
For several years, a debate on the politics of theory has been conducted within literary studies. Questions covered include what is meant by politics, and does literature remain the same after theory? This text outlines the main arguments and isses.

Antigone's claim : kinship between life and death by Judith Butler ( Book )
15 editions published between 2000 and 2010 in 4 languages and held by 833 libraries worldwide
"Antigone, the renowned insurgent from Sophocle's Oedipus, has long been a feminist icon of defiance. But what has remained unclear is whether she escapes from the forms of power that she opposes. Antigone proves to be a more ambivalent figure for feminism than has been acknowledged, since the form of defiance she exemplifies also leads to her death. Butler argues that Antigone represents a form of feminist and sexual agency that is fraught with risk. Moreover, Antignone shows how the constraints of normative kinship unfairly decide what will and will not be a liveable life."--BOOK JACKET.

Feminists theorize the political ( Book )
8 editions published in 1992 in English and held by 787 libraries worldwide
The use of "theory" in feminist analysis has been said to threaten feminism as a political force. This collection of work by leading feminist scholars engages with the question of the political status of poststructuralism theory within feminism. Against the view that the use of post-structuralism necessarily weakens feminism, 'Feminists Theorize the Political' affirms the contemporary debate over theory as politically rich and consequential. In laying the theoretical groundwork for the volume, Butler and Scott posed a number of questions to prominent legal scholars, literary critics, philosophers, political theorists, historians, and cultural theorists. The essays do not settle the questions but generate new and productive directions for them. The volume as a whole valorizes the unsettling power and politics of theory. The essays in 'Feminists Theorize the Political' speak to the questions that emerge from the convergence of feminism and poststructuralism: What happens to feminist critique when traditional foundations--experience, history, universal norms--are called into question? Can feminist theory problematize the notion of the subject without losing its political effectivity? Which version of the subject is to questioned, and how does that questioning open up possibilities for reformulating agency, power, and sites of political resistance? What are the consequences of a specifically feminist reformulation of difference? What are the uses and limits of a poststructuralist critique of binary logic for the theorization of racial and class differences, the position of the subaltern? This anthology represents a diverse array of theoretical work within feminist theory with strong political stakes. Although not all of the authors subscribe to poststructuralism, (and few would concede post-structuralism is a monolithic enterprise), each offers an innovative feminist analysis that is in some way motivated in and by the poststructuralist challenge. 'Feminists Theorize The Political' addresses a range of feminist concerns, including productive freedom, anti-discrimination law, rape, and formulating power in terms of exclusion, difference and hierarchy.

Excitable speech : a politics of the performative by Judith Butler ( Book )
9 editions published between 1997 and 2010 in English and held by 757 libraries worldwide
With the same intellectual courage with which she addressed issues of gender in two earlier best-selling Routledge books, Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter , philosopher Judith Butler turns her attention to speech and conduct in contemporary political life, looking at several efforts to target speech as conduct that has become subject to political debate and regulation. Reviewing hate speech regulations, anti-pornography arguments, and recent controversies about gay self-declaration in the military, Judith Butler asks whether and how language acts in each of these cultural sites. Excitable Speech examines the issue of the threatening action of words. The book suggests that although language is a kind of performance which has the power to produce political effects and injuries, it is best understood as a scene of injury rather than its cause. Rather, Butler warns us againts a 'sovereign' view of language, in which the words we speak are construed as unequivocal forms of conduct. She shows that the repetition of injurious language can be the occasion of its redefinition. Negotiating the work of Austin, Derrida and Bourdieu, she offers a theory of the political performativity of language. Butler illuminates the efficacy of injurious language, covering speech act therapy in both philosophical and literary traditions, Supreme Court cases, hate speech and pornography critics, and recent bans on gay speech in the military.

Giving an account of oneself by Judith Butler ( Book )
18 editions published between 2003 and 2009 in 4 languages and held by 649 libraries worldwide
What does it mean to lead a moral life?In her first extended study of moral philosophy, Judith Butler offers a provocative outline for a new ethical practice?one responsive to the need for critical autonomy and grounded in a new sense of the human subject. Butler takes as her starting point one?s ability to answer the questions?What have I done?? and?What ought I to do?? She shows that these question can be answered only by asking a prior question,?Who is this?I? who is under an obligation to give an account of itself and to act in certain ways?? Because I find that I cannot give an account.

The psychic life of power : theories in subjection by Judith Butler ( Book )
21 editions published between 1997 and 2010 in 6 languages and held by 642 libraries worldwide
As a form of power, subjection is paradoxical. To be dominated by a power external to oneself is a familiar and agonizing form power takes. To find, however, that what "one" is, one's very formation as a subject, is dependent upon that very power is quite another. If, following Foucault, we understand power as forming the subject as well, it provides the very condition of its existence and the trajectory of its desire. Power is not simply what we depend on for our existence but that which forms reflexivity as well. Drawing upon Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault, and Althusser, this challenging and lucid work offers a theory of subject formation that illuminates as ambivalent the psychic effects of social power. Although most readers of Foucault eschew psychoanalytic theory, and most thinkers of the psyche eschew Foucault, the author seeks to theorize this ambivalent relation between the social and the psychic as one of the most dynamic and difficult effects of power.

Precarious life : the powers of mourning and violence by Judith Butler ( Book )
13 editions published between 2003 and 2006 in English and Turkish and held by 589 libraries worldwide
"In this profound appraisal of post-September 11, 2001 America, Judith Butler considers the conditions of heightened vulnerability and aggression that followed from the attack, and the US government's decision to retaliate. She critiques the use of violence that has emerged as a response to loss, and argues that the dislocation of first-world privilege offers instead a chance to imagine a world in which that violence might be minimized, and in which interdependency becomes acknowledged as the basis for a global political community."--Jacket.