Performativity Identified

Abstract

Poststructural feminist notions of subjectivity point to a notion of the “self” that is fluid, contradictory, and produced in relationships with others and everyday practices. These social structures and processes that shape subjectivity are situated within discursive fields where language, power relations, and discourses exist, intersect, and construct competing ways of giving meaning to and constructing subjectivity. This article explicates Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, an analysis of gender (re)signification that provides a rich engagement with the complex relations that enable the construction of subjectivity. Using data from her own life, the author illuminates how Butler’s theory can be used to analyze the ways in which subjectivity is negotiated in social relationships and daily practices. The author concludes that Butler’s theory of performativity offers a hopeful theory of subjectivity that provides space for individual agency and collective difference.