True Identities: From Performativity to Festival

Hypatia 29 (4):808-823 (2014)
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Abstract

Some feminists have criticized Judith Butler's theory of performativity for providing an insufficient account of agency. In this article I first defend her against such charges by appealing to two themes central to Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutics. I compare her emphasis on the sociohistorical nature of agency with Gadamer's insistence on the historical nature of knowledge, and I examine the significance Butler assigns to repetition and note its affinities with Gadamer's conception of play. In the final part of the article I argue that in spite of providing an adequate account of agency, Butler's theory of performativity provides no way to allow us to evaluate performances. I show how Gadamer's account of festival, which builds on his concept of play, is useful in helping us make sense of how we might delineate true from false performances, and thus identities

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Author's Profile

Lauren Barthold
Emerson College

Citations of this work

Performance, performatividad y memoria.Diana Paola Triana Moreno - 2018 - Cuestiones de Filosofía 22 (4):17-34.

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References found in this work

EPZ Truth and Method.Hans Georg Gadamer, Joel Weinsheimer & Donald G. Marshall - 2004 - New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Edited by Joel Weinsheimer & Donald G. Marshall.
Undoing Gender.Judith Butler - 2004 - Routledge.
The psychic life of power: theories in subjection.Judith Butler - 1997 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

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