A Study Of Judith Butler’s Narrative Discourse

Judith Butler,as a well-known American gender scholar,philosopher,and the representative of the third wave of feminism,her study extensively and deeply involves political philosophy,ethics,feminism,subject studies,literary theory and other related fields.The theory of "Gender Performativity" which proposed in Gender Trouble:Feminism and the Subversion of Identity published in 1990 brought an early academic reputation for Butler.After the September 11 attacks in the United States,Butler turned to the exploration of the "vulnerability" of life and the ethical construction of"nonviolence" with her deep philosophical and gender academic efforts,and the related results are also quite rich.The uniqueness of Butler’s theory is that it combines the realism of American feminism and the theoretical nature of French feminism,and it’s full of Butler’s own theoretical speculation to take care of reality in a different way.In view of this,Judith Butler’s theoretical achievements have a profound impact on many disciplines,and her related ideas are of great theoretical and practical value.Based on the current research status,the focus of this thesis is on the thought of Judith Butler’s narrative discourse,which fully combines Butler’s gender study,philosophical subject study,ethical advocacy,and the spirit of political practice,meanwhile clarifies the essence of narrative discourse,then reconstructs the interpretation logic of the "gender performativity" theory with "the production of narrative discourse--the practice of narrative discourse--the rewriting of narrative discourse".Chapter One is "Introduction".Firstly,This part will introduce the basic information of Judith Butler,her related theoretical works,research characteristics,theoretical significance and influences in detail.Among them,four major themes,three turns,two main axes of "gender performativity" and "non-violent ethics" of "vulnerability",language views and French/American characteristics are the focuses of the discussion.Secondly,The current research status is introduced.It mainly involves the research methods,perspectives and characteristics,as well as the research status of Butler’s narrative discourse.Finally,it’s the research methods,characteristics and innovations of this thesis.Chapter Two is "The Theoretical Foundations of the study of Judith Butler’s Narrative Discourse".It mainly relates to Butler’s early important thoughts of "gender performativity",several other studies based on "gender perferomativity",the study of narrative discourse,and the re-interpretation of "gender performativity" from the perspective of narrative discourse.More specifically,this chapter firstly explains the"gender performativity" and the current status of various interpretations in academia.It tries to prove that "gender performativity" has potential of multivariate interpretations.Secondly,the concepts and functions of discourse,narration and narratology would be clarified in particular.It’s important to point that the narrative discourse is the object in narratology but not a measure and method of the power.On the one hand,Butler inherits the thought of Foucault’s idea of "power and discourse",which regards discourse as the operating way of power.She points out that the seemingly "reasonable" narrative discourse gained its priority through the choice of mechanism and the control of the media.At the same time,it could affect the formation of one subject.That is to say,the Butler’ s idea of narrative discourse is different from narratology,which regards narrative discourse as a means to examine the relationship with power.On the other hand,Butler moves beyond Foucault,she not only summarizes the specific narrative strategies adopted by power,but also points out the isomorphism and consistency of narrative discourse operation and gender performativity,that is,narrative discourse produces the given cognition and corporeal style of subject.Finally,on the basis of the above theoretical introduction and analysis,the new interpretation "narrative discourse production--narrative discourse practice--narrative discourse rewriting" is established.Chapter Three is "The Production of Narrative Discourse and the Critical Thinking".The analysis of the production of narrative discourse starts from its pre-existence which refers to:there is already a pre-existing and external narrative discourse system before the formation of the subject,such as "knowledge","truth" and "literature" which have different shapes of narrative discourse.In a broad sense,"knowledge","theory" or"literature" is essentially the presentation of events by discourse.In a narrow sense,"knowledge","theory","truth" and "literature" all use different narrative logics and strategies.Butler uses Foucault’s theory to explain that the formation of the pre-existing narrative discourse is the result of legitimization and naturalization of power through a series of operations,which accumulates into what we see.But Butler holds a strongly questioning and critical attitude towards to some outdated and rigid narrative discourses.In the production of pre-existing narrative discourse,Butler first analyzed the operating mechanism of power,that is,power produces its own genealogical narrative discourse on the one hand,and controls and excludes other narrative discourses on the other hand.Secondly,in the productive process of narrative discourse,power combines the"situation" and "narrative discourse" into the usable means,and adopts several narrative strategies to achieve the goal of self-rationalization of power.In particular,Butler’s analysis of specific narrative strategies is special,such as the narrative presupposition like "physiology is destiny",the binary oppositional narrative structure of masculinity and femininity,the substitution of the perspectives of men instead of women in formulating female rules,and the meta-narrative of presupposition.It also contains the control visual representations and traumatic narratives in order to stimulate the interpreter’s emotions.Finally,Butler regards sex,gender,illusory identity,body style,stereotyped literary narration,framework and norms as a series of universal social fictions,straightforwardly exposes their restraints and limitations.Chapter Four is "The Practice of Narrative Discourse".It mainly focuses on the performativity of one individual.First of all,Butler points out the general "vulnerability"in her book of The Psychic Life of Power:Theories in Subjection,Precarious Life:The Powers of Mourning and Violence,Giving an Account of Oneself.The general vulnerability is that the body is extremely vulnerable to violence,its spirit has the desire for existence,the lack of symbols,and the need for narration.If he or she does not submit to the pre-existing power relationship and the narrative discourse,the individual cannot become a narrator which means that he or she is not exist.Under these disadvantages,the individual has to submit to power,to study symbols,and to perform the prior narrative discourse.Secondly,Butler believes that the process of performance is divided into language dimension and physical dimension.In gender analysis,Butler gives us an example.When babies are born,they have been called boys or girls.In the process of their growth,children will accept the narrative discourse and the metaphors behind the narrative discourse,and cite the norms to guide their behaviors.The performances happens at the same time in the language dimension and the physical dimension.Finally,the effect of the performance is shown as the reasonable cognition and natural physical expression.The reasonable cognition is a kind of thinking model in the deep consciousness.But Butler believes that the reasonable cognition is fake,which is the real effect produced by the narrative discourse,and these effects are mistaken for reality itself.The natural expression of the body is that words create various materialized realities in the physical dimension.In the end,as Wittig said,we are forced to perform to the ideas that established nature for us in physics,psychology,and in one characteristic after another.Chapter Five is the "Rewriting of Narrative Discourse".Firstly,Butler points out the breaks in the ’narration’,’language/discourse" and " interpretation’.In "discourse narrative",Butler believes that there is a break between the speaker’s intention and the discourse.In "language/discourse",Butler uses F.de Saussure’s "arbitrariness" and Jacques Derrida’s "différance" to explain that the signifier and the signified are always in a state of break.Butler also illustrates the split function of language and the phenomenon of increasing meaning based upon Julia Kristeva.At the same time,the operation of power leads to the limitation and fracture of the narrative discourse framework.In"interpretation",every reader has their own interpretations due to different contexts which results in a state of heterogeneity and pluralism of meaning between discourse and actual interpretation forever.That is to say,in different contexts,there are gaps,incoherences,and changes in meaning between discourse and contexts.Secondly,Butler points out the breaks in the practice of narrative discourse.Butler uses Slavoj Zizek’s arguments to show that any formation of subject must consider what cannot be tolerated by discourse or symbolism,and all discourse inquiries or constructions are doomed to fail and cannot be separated from probability.Then,the breaks of practice in cognition and physics is inevitable.After that,the broken subject is suppressed,controlled or even expelled by power degraded as a "abjection".However,the initiative of narrative discourse rewriting comes from the motivation of heterogeneous power,the new background of re-interpretation,and also from the efforts of these abjection’s narration.At last,Butler also proposes the strategy of "cultural translation" and the advocacy of"community",which is intended to explain that whether it is mainstream discourse or marginal discourse,it should hold the "community" as the common sense and use"cultural translation" to achieve the purpose of communication to resolve the gap between different narrative discourses.