Reviews for Judith Butler

The average rating for Judith Butler based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-08-25 00:00:00 Maria Ziegler Judith Butler: From Norms to Politics is a very good introduction to Butler's work up until around 2006. It has a kind of mixed approach and method to Butler's thinking. It is in many way a chronological structure where Lloyd starts with Subjects of Desire and the continues to Precarious Life, Giving an account of Oneself and Undoing Gender. Yet, having said that, the sense is that the book is tied together thematically rather than chronologically. Lloyd lets certain themes run through the book, for example desire and psychoanalysis, feminism and subversion. These themes are of course influenced by Butler's most influential book, Gender Trouble, yet I think Lloyd manages to show how they run through almost all of Butler's thinking. To my mind, the book is particularly strong on Butler and Feminism and it does not get as stuck on queer theory as some commentators tend to do. A slightly annoying thing in the book are the constant references forward in the book to chapter 6, as if everything will be dealt with there (and then references in chapter 6 back to previous chapters!). Chapter 6 is a good summary of the previous book, yet I think the references could have been dealt with differently. Anyway, this is certainly a good starting point if one wants to be introduced to Butler. Having said that I think Salih's book on Butler is still the book for an introduction to Butler.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-23 00:00:00 Matthew Green Moya Lloyd succeeds in proving a readable and clear critique of Butler's work, which is often so dreadfully complex and opaque. I read Lloyd's chapter on Gender Trouble immediately after finishing the book, and her well-structured approach was a breath of fresh air. What I especially appreciate is that Lloyd doesn't "dumb down" Butler's arguments, but contextualizes them, teases them apart, and in that way, make them easier to grasp. At times I almost felt as if Lloyd was slightly overcompensating for Butler's difuseness by writing too structered, in a rather text-book manner - but this is just a minor criticism on the style. The content is impeccable.