This essay addresses the notion of agency in Judith Butler’s work. Its central claim is that her political philosophy revolves around a specific understanding of agency, even a theory of agency, which has not as yet received due attention. The first part of the essay examines two main thought traditions in which agency became an operational notion, through the lenses of intentionality and constraints, voluntarism and determinism. The second part elaborates on the centrality of the body, the social, and the power in Butler’s understanding of agency, conjoining agency with performativity. The essay argues that agency in Butler exceeds freedom, autonomy, and liberation, and has a potent political meaning of its own.
Keywords:
agency / body / the social / the political
Source:
Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler, 2021, 21-30
TY - CHAP
AU - Zaharijević, Adriana
PY - 2021
UR - http://rifdt.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/123456789/2172
AB - This essay addresses the notion of agency in Judith Butler’s work. Its central claim is that her political philosophy revolves around a specific understanding of agency, even a theory of agency, which has not as yet received due attention. The first part of the essay examines two main thought traditions in which agency became an operational notion, through the lenses of intentionality and constraints, voluntarism and determinism. The second part elaborates on the centrality of the body, the social, and the power in Butler’s understanding of agency, conjoining agency with performativity. The essay argues that agency in Butler exceeds freedom, autonomy, and liberation, and has a potent political meaning of its own.
PB - University of Amsterdam Press
T2 - Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler
T1 - On Butler’s Theory of Agency
VL - 21-30
DO - 10.5117/9789463722940
ER -
@inbook{
author = "Zaharijević, Adriana",
year = "2021",
abstract = "This essay addresses the notion of agency in Judith Butler’s work. Its central claim is that her political philosophy revolves around a specific understanding of agency, even a theory of agency, which has not as yet received due attention. The first part of the essay examines two main thought traditions in which agency became an operational notion, through the lenses of intentionality and constraints, voluntarism and determinism. The second part elaborates on the centrality of the body, the social, and the power in Butler’s understanding of agency, conjoining agency with performativity. The essay argues that agency in Butler exceeds freedom, autonomy, and liberation, and has a potent political meaning of its own.",
publisher = "University of Amsterdam Press",
journal = "Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler",
booktitle = "On Butler’s Theory of Agency",
volume = "21-30",
doi = "10.5117/9789463722940"
}
Zaharijević, A.. (2021). On Butler’s Theory of Agency. in Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler
University of Amsterdam Press., 21-30.
https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463722940
Zaharijević A. On Butler’s Theory of Agency. in Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler. 2021;21-30.
doi:10.5117/9789463722940 .
Zaharijević, Adriana, "On Butler’s Theory of Agency" in Bodies That Still Matter: Resonances of the Work of Judith Butler, 21-30 (2021),
https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463722940 . .
