Editing Performativity (section)

=== Judith Butler ===
{{Main|Gender performativity}}

Philosopher and [[feminist]] theorist [[Judith Butler]] offered a new, more [[Continental philosophy|Continental]] (specifically, [[Michel Foucault|Foucauldian]]) reading of the notion of performativity, which has its roots in [[linguistics]] and [[philosophy of language]]. They describe performativity as "that reiterative power of discourse to produce the phenomena that it regulates and constrains."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Judith |url=https://archive.org/details/bodiesthatmatter00butl |title=Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" |publisher=Routledge |year=1993 |isbn=9780415903660 |location=New York |pages=xii |url-access=registration}}</ref> It is an [[non-essentialism|anti-essentialist]] theory of [[subjectification|subjectivity]] in which a performance of the self is repeated and dependent upon a social audience.  n this way, these unfixed and precarious performances come to have the appearance of substance and continuity.

A key theoretical point that was most radical in regards to theories of subjectivity and performance is that there is no performer behind the performance.  Butler derived this idea from [[Nietzsche|Nietzsche's]] concept of "no doer behind the deed." This is to say that there is no self before the performance of the self, but rather that the performance has constitutive powers. This is how categories of the self for Judith Butler, such as gender, are seen as something that one "does," rather than something one "is." They have largely used this concept in their analysis of [[gender]] development.<ref>This idea was first introduced in 1988 in an issue of ''[[Theatre Journal]]'' (Brickell, 2005).</ref>

Influenced by Austin, Butler argued that [[social construction of gender|gender is socially constructed]] through commonplace [[speech act]]s and [[nonverbal communication]] that are performative, in that they serve to define and maintain [[social identity|identities]].<ref name="Butler1990">{{cite book |last=Butler |first=Judith |title=Gender Trouble |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |location=New York}}</ref> This view of performativity reverses the idea that a person's identity is the source of their secondary actions (speech, gestures). Instead, it views actions, behaviors, and gestures as both the result of an individual's identity as well as a source that contributes to the formation of one's identity which is continuously being redefined through speech acts and symbolic communication.<ref name="Cavanaugh" /> This view was also influenced by philosophers such as [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Louis Althusser]].<ref>Cultural Studies and Discourse Analysis – Barker & Galasinski</ref>

The concept places emphasis on the manners by which identity is passed or brought to life through discourse. Performative acts are types of authoritative speech. This can only happen and be enforced through the law or norms of the society. These statements, just by speaking them, carry out a certain action and exhibit a certain level of power. Examples of these types of statements are declarations of ownership, baptisms, inaugurations, and legal sentences. Something that is key to performativity is repetition.<ref>{{cite web |last=Halberstam |first=Jack |date=2014-05-16 |title=An audio overview of queer theory in English and Turkish by Jack Halberstam |url=https://archive.org/details/HalberstamQueerTheory-AnkaraTurkey |access-date=29 May 2014}}</ref> The statements are not singular in nature or use and must be used consistently in order to exert power.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Stuart |title=Identity: a reader |date=2008 |publisher=Sage Publ. [u.a.] |isbn=978-0-7619-6916-7 |editor-last=Du Gay |editor-first=Paul |edition= |location=London |chapter=Who Needs Identity?}}</ref>

==== Theoretical criticisms ====
Several criticisms have been raised regarding Butler's reading of performativity. The first is that the theory is individual in nature and does not take into consideration such factors as the space within which the performance occurs, the others involved, and how others might see or interpret what they witness. It has also been argued that Butler overlooks the unplanned effects of the performance act and the contingencies surrounding it.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Lloyd |first=Moya |date=April 1999 |title=Performativity, Parody, Politics |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02632769922050476 |journal=Theory, Culture & Society |language=en |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=195–213 |doi=10.1177/02632769922050476 |issn=0263-2764}}</ref>

Another criticism is that Butler is not clear about the concept of subject.  It has been said that in Butler's writings, the subject sometimes only exists tentatively, sometimes possesses a "real" existence, and other times is socially active.  Also, some observe that the theory might be better suited to literary analysis as opposed to social theory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brickell |first=Chris |date=July 2005 |title=Masculinities, Performativity, and Subversion: A Sociological Reappraisal |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1097184X03257515 |journal=Men and Masculinities |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=24–43 |doi=10.1177/1097184X03257515 |issn=1097-184X}}</ref>

Others criticize Butler for taking [[Ethnomethodology|ethnomethodological]] and [[Symbolic interactionism|symbolic interactionist]] sociological analyses of gender and merely reinventing them in the concept of performativity.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dunn |first=Robert G. |date=1997-09-01 |title=Self, Identity, and Difference: Mead and the Poststructuralists |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1997.tb00760.x |journal=The Sociological Quarterly |language=en |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=687–705 |doi=10.1111/j.1533-8525.1997.tb00760.x |issn=0038-0253}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Adam Isaiah |date=March 2007 |title=Queer Theory and Sociology: Locating the Subject and the Self in Sexuality Studies |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9558.2007.00296.x |journal=Sociological Theory |language=en |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=26–45 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9558.2007.00296.x |issn=0735-2751}}</ref>  For example, A. I. Green<ref name=":1" /> argues that the work of Kessler and McKenna (1978) and West and Zimmerman (1987) builds directly from [[Harold Garfinkel|Garfinkel]] (1967) and [[Erving Goffman|Goffman]] (1959) to deconstruct gender into moments of attribution and iteration in a continual social process of "doing" [[masculinity]] and [[femininity]] in the [[performative interval]].  These latter works are premised on the notion that gender does not precede but, rather, follows from practice, instantiated in micro-interaction.