Judith Butler Quote
When we lose certain people, or when we are dispossessed from a place, or a community, we may simply feel that we are undergoing something temporary, that mourning will be over and some restoration of prior order will be achieved. But maybe when we undergo what we do, something about who we are is revealed, something that delineates the ties we have to others, that shows us that these ties constitute what we are, ties or bonds that compose us. It is not as if an I exists independently over here and then simply loses a you over there, especially if the attachment to you is part of what composes who I am. If I lose you, under these conditions, then I not only mourn the loss, but I become inscrutable to myself. Who am I, without you? When we lose some of these ties by which we are constituted, we do not know who we are or what to do. On one level, I think I have lost you only to discover that I have gone missing as well.
When we lose certain people, or when we are dispossessed from a place, or a community, we may simply feel that we are undergoing something temporary, that mourning will be over and some restoration of prior order will be achieved. But maybe when we undergo what we do, something about who we are is revealed, something that delineates the ties we have to others, that shows us that these ties constitute what we are, ties or bonds that compose us. It is not as if an I exists independently over here and then simply loses a you over there, especially if the attachment to you is part of what composes who I am. If I lose you, under these conditions, then I not only mourn the loss, but I become inscrutable to myself. Who am I, without you? When we lose some of these ties by which we are constituted, we do not know who we are or what to do. On one level, I think I have lost you only to discover that I have gone missing as well.
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About Judith Butler
In 1993 Butler began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where they have served, beginning in 1998, as the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory. They are also the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School (EGS).
Butler is best known for their books Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (1993), in which they challenge conventional, heteronormative notions of gender and develop their theory of gender performativity. This theory has had a major influence on feminist and queer scholarship. Their work is often studied and debated in film studies courses emphasizing gender studies and performativity.
Butler has spoken on many contemporary political questions, including Israeli politics and in support of LGBT rights.