Theories of subjectivity Free Essay Example, 2250 words

Butler’s take on this matter is both compatible and a little critical. To start with, Butler shares Foucault’s insistence that subjectivity, the experience of the â€Å"interior† self, is but an effect. We have Sonia Kruks (2001) insight to underscore the point: †¦ for Butler, as for Foucault, there are only two possibilities: the subject is conceived either as fully constituting or as constituted tout court. And like Foucault – at least in his explicit pronouncements on this issue – Butler conceives the subject as entirely constituted. (p. 72) When Foucault (1979) concluded that â€Å"the soul is the effect and instrument of a political anatomy; the soul is the prison of the body, † (p. 30) Butler did not object. She extensively analyzed this statement along with centuries-old arguments of Aristotle, particularly highlighting that the soul as described by Foucault, â€Å"is an instrument of power, forms and frames the body, stamps it, and in stamping it, brings it into being. † (p. 34) On the other hand, Butler faulted Foucault for elaborating an overly passive conception of the body as the surface of disciplinary action. She particularly argued that gender is produced through a series of acts that are always internally discontinuous, rather than knit closely together in the lived intentionality of a body-subject. We will write a custom essay sample on Theories of subjectivity or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now (Kruks p. 72) However, Butler followed Foucault, in studying the subject as a contingent identity category where is continually being produced instead of a pre-defined or pre-existing object that is finally represented. On Feminism Foucault’s position contributed to most of Butler’s arguments on the issue. As with the other sectors in the issue of sexuality, feminism is addressed by Foucault using his desexualization approach. The objective of this strategy, according to Simons, is to detach people from their sexually defined identities, such as â€Å"hysterical† women. We quote: The validity of Faucault’s position for feminism rests on an argument that women in particular are constrained by oppressive sexual subjectivities. Effective desexualization requires an analysis of how sex and subjectifying power are linked. The strategy of desexualization for Faucault is thus not only a question of feminism, but of a wider resistance to our subjection primarily as sexual subjects. (p. 107) Here, we draw some parallel to Butler’s arguments, who for her part, refused to join most feminists adhering to the humanist theory calling for extra-political grounds of exposing the plight of women and advocating feminism.