Abstract

In this article I respond to James Martel’s generous review of my book Power and Feminist Agency in Capitalism (2017). In particular, I respond to his suggestion that I may be too quick to suggest that Bulter wants to give up on the subject entirely. I reiterate that for Butler (which I discuss in Chapter six of my book), we must be recognized by an alienating Other to secure our existence. As a result, the moment of becoming a subject is always bound up with subordination that we can only escape through desubjectivation. However, my concept of the political subject-in-outline, which I develop in the book, shows that subject formation does not necessarily imply subordination if we employ limit concepts in our theorizing and break with the language of recognition. The moment of the limit points at the holes or gaps in the Other, the symbolic domain, and its signifiers. At this moment, the Other does not recognize or misrecognize me, but makes me question who I am, which allows me to transform oppressive social categories.