Martinez, A. (2015) La Tensión entre Materialidad y Discurso: La mirada de Judith Butler sobre el cuerpo. Cinta moebio 54: 325-335

PDF | HTML

The tension between materiality and discourse: Judith Butler’s notion of body

Dr. Ariel Martínez (amartinez@psico.unlp.edu.ar) Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Ciudad de La Plata, Argentina)

Abstract

This article proposes to analyse the way in which the body is addressed in the philosophical works of Judith Butler. The constructionism that characterizes her initial articles has been widely spread in the contemporary debates about sex and gender diversity, since in those articles she links the body to a discursive ontology that denounces the contingent and unnecessary welding between body –which is considered as the substantial and natural basis of gender and sexuality– and subjective identities. Such an epistemological turn, however, entails the problem of the dissolution of the material body as a strong foundation for various political claims. From this point on, some argumentative lines will be drawn parting from different segments of the author’s thought. These lines tend to present a complex notion of the body, clung to the idea of vulnerability.

Key words: Judith Butler, body, discourse, materiality, sex.