The last 7 chapters in Judith Butler and Athena Athanasiou’s piece, Dispossession: The Performative in the
Political, highlight the importance of the significance of the performative
aspect of the political arena. In their chapter titled “The political effects
of plural performativity” she highlights the consequences of the conflation of
various performative identities in the political arena. As she discusses dispossession
and the “removal” of the self from the body and the desire to reclaim this self-identity,
she also goes into how it is impossible to exist within this frame of reference
without interacting with other “selves” and other identities. This sometimes
comes at a cost, as she outlines, “vulnerability of fatigue, endurance,
changeability, and vitalization” (178). They discuss the freedom and liberation
conundrum and how this discourse can and does promote the liberation of the
self from whatever political barriers initially kept the self and the body
disassociated.
This interaction very much so reminds me of Iris Young’s
discussion on interest based democracy and deliberative democracy. Both Butler
and Athanasiou focus on the discourse necessary for this kind of political
process (reclaiming the self and the body/liberation), and stress the
importance of dialogue. Much like Young who talks about the positive aspects of
deliberative democracy—and who also recognizes that unfortunately the current
frame of deliberative democracy often does involve, like the book points to,
the forceful erasure and disregard for identities—both Butler and Athanasiou
promote the process of identity interaction and the imperativeness of
recognizing and respecting the identities of others. In the performative arena,
this erasure is apparent and thus can be enacted on, but when present in
democratic dialogue, the erasure is much more insidious.
Ren,
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up the "liberation and freedom conundrum" which I think is another paradox like we were discussing in class. How can the "self" be liberated as an independent entity when the entire idea of a "self" and a "subject" is bound up in the relationality of all people and subjectivities. On the point about Young and interest based democracy I think it is interesting that a lot of politics has to do with the interests of the "self" and the "I" or on the opposite side the good of the collective, but this good of the collective is also usually decided based upon certain privileges subjectivities. I wonder if Butler and Athanasoiu would like Young's concept of communicative democracy?