Reinterpretations of the symbolic and the Law in Judith Butler’s gender theory

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36517/Argumentos.27.15

Keywords:

Gender theory. Lacan. Symbolic. Resistances. Culture.

Abstract

The article discusses how the concepts of symbolic and Law appear in the construction of Judith Butler's theory of gender. It explains how the author uses the concept of prohibition as a framework for analysis, so that an inflection between her thinking and psychoanalysis is produced. In addition, it analyzes how the articulation between the psychic and power is carried out in Butler, when she establishes a dialogue with Michel Foucault. Thus, based on a proposition that mixes aspects of the psyche with dynamics of the functioning of power, Butler performs a re-reading of traditional Lacanian theorizing about the symbolic, with the purpose of making visible processes of resistance that allow the reconfiguration of the symbolic and of culture, an undertaking that it can be approximated to that carried out by Deleuze and Guattari, although Butler refuses a theoretical approximation with these authors.

Author Biography

André Luiz dos Santos Paiva, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Doutor em Filosofia pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). Bolsista CAPES/BRASIL de pós-doutorado no Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação Contemporânea - PPGEduC da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE, Centro Acadêmico do Agreste. 

References

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DELEUZE, Gilles; GUATTARI, Félix. O anti-Édipo: capitalismo e esquizofrenia 1. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Ed. 34, 2011.

FOUCAULT, Michel. A sociedade punitiva. Curso no Collège de France (1972-1973). São Paulo: Editora WMF Martins Fontes, 2015.

FOUCAULT, Michel. História da sexualidade I: A vontade de saber. Rio de Janeiro: Edições Graal, 1988.

LACAN, Jacques. O simbólico, o imaginário e o real: conferência de 8 de julho de 1953 na Sociedade Francesa de Psicanálise [online]. 1953. Disponível em: <http://psicoanalisis.org/lacan/rsi-53.htm>. Acesso em: 21.jul.2021.

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Published

2022-01-01

Issue

Section

Varia