Gender as Social Temporality

Butler (and Marx)

Bibliographic Data

ID12674040
AuthorsCinzia Arruzza (0000-0002-6096-4616, New School for Social ResearchNew York, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume23
Issue1
Pages28-52
Publication date2015-03-25
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistorical Materialism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-4466 • E-ISSN: 1569-206X
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/1569206x-12341396
OpenAlexW2000031192
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited27

This article addresses the notions of gender performativity and temporality in Butler’s early work on gender. The paper is articulated in four steps. First it gives an account of the role and nature of temporality in Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Second, it shows some similarities and connections between the role played by temporality in Butler’s theory of gender performativity and its role in Marx’s analysis of capital. Third, it raises some criticisms of Butler’s understanding of temporality and historicity, focusing in particular on the lack of historicisation of her own categories in both Gender Trouble and Bodies that Matter . This deficit is a consequence of the epistemological framework within which she is operating, in particular of her understanding of social practices and relations through the lens of linguistic concepts extrapolated from their theoretical context. The article concludes by referring to Floyd’s and Hennessy’s analyses of the formation of sexual identities as examples of the fruitful historicisation of gender performativity, which also sheds some light on the ‘the abstract character’ of the temporality of gender performativity

Aesthetics · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Historicity (philosophy · Performativity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Temporality · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism

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