Author

Publication

2006-05-12 - Routledge, New York, USA

Language

English

Word Count

59,000 words, Guess

Page Count

236 pages

Identifiers

and 5 more

Classifications

  • LCCHQ1154.B88 2006
  • DDC305.3
  • LCCHQ1154 .B88 1990

Description

One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial. Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, 'essential' notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning the category 'woman' and continues in this vein with examinations of 'the masculine' and 'the feminine'. Best known however, but also most often misinterpreted, is Butler's concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality. Thrilling and provocative, few other academic works have roused passions to the same extent.

First Sentence

For the most part, feminist theory has assumed that there is some existing identity, understood through the category of women, who not only initiates feminist interests and goals within discourse, but constitutes the subject for whom political representation is pursued.

Excerpt

For the most part, feminist theory has assumed that there is some existing identity, understood through the category of women, who not only initiates feminist interests and goals within discourse, but constitutes the subject for whom political representation is pursued.

Description

Since its initial publication in 1990, this book has become a key work of contemporary feminist theory, and an essential work for anyone interested in the study of gender, queer theory, or the politics of sexuality in culture. This is the text where the author began to advance the ideas that would go on to take life as "performativity theory," as well as some of the first articulations of the possibility for subversive gender practices. Overall, this book offers a powerful critique of heteronormativity and of the function of gender in the modern world.

Subjects

Series Statement

  • Routledge Classics

Other Editions

  • Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of IdentityRoutledge2006-05-12
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