From Subjection to Relationality: mourning in Butler's ethical-political turn

• Grant number: 24/06134-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 15, 2024
• End date: September 14, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Nathalie de Almeida Bressiani
• Grantee: Michele Teixeira Bonote
• Supervisor: Amy Rebekah Allen
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Pennsylvania State University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/04540-9 - The role of grief in Judith Butler's "ethical turn": subject's formation and its ethical-political implications, BP.DR

Abstract

In this project, we propose to analyze the relevance of Judith Butler's work, Giving an Account of Oneself (2005), in her ethical-political turn. To support this idea, we begin by examining the significance of mourning in Butler's reflections on subject formation, as presented in her work from the 2000s. We believe that compared to her earlier work from the 1990s, such as The Psychic Life of Power (1997), Butler's account of subjectivity undergoes a transformation in Giving an Account of Oneself (2005). Initially, her focus was on the negative aspects of subject formation, as observed in her report on the paradox of subject formation in subjection. However, she later expands this framework by emphasizing the relational dimension of subject formation, through the experience of grief, highlighting the positive aspects of this process. In our interpretation, this movement by Butler represents an advancement in ethical-political analysis. Her turn does not abandon politics; power still operates to determine who counts as human. At the same time, it highlights the importance of a relational subject that needs to respond to the demands of others in a responsible manner.