Judith Butler (1956–)

This chapter discusses life history of Judith Butler, a feminist thinker. If feminism's key concern lies with 'opening up possibilities' that make life liveable, then scholars and students of feminist theory must engage with the work of the American philosopher Judith Butler. Trained in the continental tradition of modern and contemporary philosophy, Butler's work draws on a broad range of poststructuralist and phenomenological thought. Butler's interventions into post-9/11 political discourse, her engagement with the idea of cohabitation regarding Israel/Palestine, and her attention to questions of ethical responsibility, are beginning to make an impact on international political theory and global ethics. To acknowledge Butler's significance for feminism requires consideration of the substantial anxiety that her theory of gender performativity has caused among some of her feminist critics. It is because of her concern for liveability and for opening up possibilities, sustained by a politics of the performative, that Butler can be described as the most significant feminist thinker of our era.