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LÉVI-STRAUSS’UN YAPISALCILIĞINI ALTÜST ETMEK: CİNSİYET BELASI’NI “BÜKÜLMÜŞ BRİCOLAGE” OLARAK OKUMAK

Year 2020, Volume: 8 Issue: 16, 171 - 186, 15.10.2020
https://doi.org/10.20304/humanitas.729077

Abstract

Bu makale, Judith Butler’ın Cinsiyet Belası: Feminizm ve Kimliğin Altüst Edilmesi (1999) adlı kitabında etkili yapısal antropolog Claude Lévi-Strauss’u sunuşunu eleştirel bir şekilde analiz eder. Bu kitapta Butler feministleri, ataerkil düzen eleştirilerinde Lévi-Strauss’un ikili karşıtlıklarını ve cinsiyet/toplumsal cinsiyet ikiliğini kullandıkları için eleştirir. Butler’ın analizi, toplumsal cinsiyetin nasıl işlediğini anlamak için verimli bir mercek sağlar. Fakat bu analiz, bu makalede gösterildiği gibi, Lévi-Strauss’un bu ikilikleri ele alışının yanlış bir ifadesine dayanmaktadır. Bu makale, Lévi-Strauss’un “bricolage” terimini kullanarak, Butler’ın bu yanlış yorumlayışını Lévi-Strauss’un yapısalcılığındaki bazı varsayımları sarsan bükülmüş bir bricolage formu olarak okur. Bu makale, Lévi-Strauss’un yapısal teorisinin sadece feminist teoriyi değil onun eleştirisini de etkilediğine dair bir örnek sunmaktadır. Bu makale, bunun yanı sıra, etkili toplumsal cinsiyet kuramcısı Judith Butler’ın diğer akademisyenleri yanlış yorumlayışını anlamak için alternatif bir yol sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır.

References

  • Brown, H. (2019). Postfeminist re-essentialism in The Hunger Games and The Selection trilogies. Women’s Studies, 48(7), 735–54.
  • Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex.” London: Routledge.
  • Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York:Routledge (Original work published 1990).
  • Butler, J. (2002). Antigone’s claim: Kinship between life and death. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • de Beauvoir, S. (1956). The second sex. (H. M. Parshley Trans. and Ed.). London: Jonathan Cape (Original work published 1949).
  • Busby, C. (2000). The performance of gender: An anthropology of everyday life in a South Indian fishing village. London; New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press.
  • Ewing, K. P. (2008). Stolen honor: Stigmatizing Muslim men in Berlin. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  • Femenías, M. L. (1999). Beauvoir revisited: Butler and the ‘gender’ question. Labyrinth, 1 (1). http://phaidon.philo.at/~iaf/Labyrinth/Feminias.html
  • Gilbert, E. (2007). Performing femininity: Young women’s gendered practice of cigarette smoking. Journal of Gender Studies, 16(2), 121–37.
  • Heinämaa, S. (1997). What is a woman? Butler and Beauvoir on the foundations of the sexual difference. Hypatia, 12(1), 20–39.
  • Kelan, E. (2009). Performing gender at work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1963). Structural anthropology. (C. Jacobson & B. G. Schoepf Trans.). New York: Basic Books.
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966). The savage mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1983). The raw and the cooked. (J. Weightman & D. Weightman Trans.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press (Original work published 1964).
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (2010). Structuralism and ecology (J. Neugroschel & P. Hoss Trans.). In Paul A. Erickson & Liam D. Murphy (Eds), Readings for a history of anthropological theory. (pp. 161-174). Ontario: University of Toronto Press (Original work published 1984).
  • Martínez, E. J. (2010). On Butler on Morrison on language. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 35(4), 821–42.
  • Mitchell, M. E. (2003). Dreadful necessities: Nature and the performance of gender in memoirs of a woman of pleasure. Women’s Studies, 32(3), 305–24.
  • McNay, L. (1999). Subject, psyche and agency: The work of Judith Butler. Theory, Culture & Society, 16(2), 175–93.
  • Morris, R. (1995). All made up: Performance theory and the new anthropology of sex and gender. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24(1), 567–92.
  • Myers, K. (2016). Translating gender (troubles): Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and the American appropriation of “french theory.” Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, 22, 91-103.
  • Nelson, L. (1999). Bodies (and spaces) do matter: The limits of performativity. Gender, Place and Culture, 6(4), 331–53.
  • Nussbaum, M. (1999). The professor of parody: The hip defeatism of Judith Butler. The New Republic, 22, 37–45.
  • Ortner, S. B. (1972). Is female to male as nature is to culture?. Feminist Studies, 1(2), 5–31.
  • Roden, F. (2001). Becoming Butlerian: On the discursive limits (and potentials) of Gender Trouble at ten years of age. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, 6(1), 25–33.
  • Rossi, I. (1973). The unconscious in the anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss. American Anthropologist, 75(1), 20–48.
  • Sanger, T. (2008). Trans governmentality: The production and regulation of gendered subjectivities. Journal of Gender Studies, 17(1), 41–53.
  • Strong, T. (2002). Kinship between Judith Butler and anthropology? A review essay. Ethnos, 67(3), 401–18.
  • Trevenna, J. (2002). Gender as performance: Questioning the ‘Butlerification’ of Angela Carter’s fiction.” Journal of Gender Studies, 11(3), 267–76.

SUBVERTING LÉVI-STRAUSS’S STRUCTURALISM: READING GENDER TROUBLE AS “TWISTED BRICOLAGE”

Year 2020, Volume: 8 Issue: 16, 171 - 186, 15.10.2020
https://doi.org/10.20304/humanitas.729077

Abstract

This article critically analyzes Judith Butler’s presentation of Claude Lévi-Strauss in her book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1999). In this book, Butler criticizes feminists for employing Lévi-Strauss’s binary oppositions and their use of the sex/gender binary in their critique of patriarchy. Butler’s analysis provides a fruitful lens to understand how gender operates. However, as the article shows, this analysis relies on a misrepresentation of Lévi-Strauss’s take on these dualities. Employing Lévi-Strauss’s term “bricolage,” the article reads Butler’s misinterpretation as a twisted form of bricolage, which destabilizes certain assumptions in Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism. The article presents an example of how Lévi-Strauss’s structural theory has influenced not only feminist theory but also its critique. The article also aims at providing an alternative way to understand influential gender theorist Judith Butler’s misinterpretation of other scholars.

References

  • Brown, H. (2019). Postfeminist re-essentialism in The Hunger Games and The Selection trilogies. Women’s Studies, 48(7), 735–54.
  • Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex.” London: Routledge.
  • Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York:Routledge (Original work published 1990).
  • Butler, J. (2002). Antigone’s claim: Kinship between life and death. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • de Beauvoir, S. (1956). The second sex. (H. M. Parshley Trans. and Ed.). London: Jonathan Cape (Original work published 1949).
  • Busby, C. (2000). The performance of gender: An anthropology of everyday life in a South Indian fishing village. London; New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press.
  • Ewing, K. P. (2008). Stolen honor: Stigmatizing Muslim men in Berlin. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  • Femenías, M. L. (1999). Beauvoir revisited: Butler and the ‘gender’ question. Labyrinth, 1 (1). http://phaidon.philo.at/~iaf/Labyrinth/Feminias.html
  • Gilbert, E. (2007). Performing femininity: Young women’s gendered practice of cigarette smoking. Journal of Gender Studies, 16(2), 121–37.
  • Heinämaa, S. (1997). What is a woman? Butler and Beauvoir on the foundations of the sexual difference. Hypatia, 12(1), 20–39.
  • Kelan, E. (2009). Performing gender at work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1963). Structural anthropology. (C. Jacobson & B. G. Schoepf Trans.). New York: Basic Books.
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966). The savage mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1983). The raw and the cooked. (J. Weightman & D. Weightman Trans.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press (Original work published 1964).
  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (2010). Structuralism and ecology (J. Neugroschel & P. Hoss Trans.). In Paul A. Erickson & Liam D. Murphy (Eds), Readings for a history of anthropological theory. (pp. 161-174). Ontario: University of Toronto Press (Original work published 1984).
  • Martínez, E. J. (2010). On Butler on Morrison on language. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 35(4), 821–42.
  • Mitchell, M. E. (2003). Dreadful necessities: Nature and the performance of gender in memoirs of a woman of pleasure. Women’s Studies, 32(3), 305–24.
  • McNay, L. (1999). Subject, psyche and agency: The work of Judith Butler. Theory, Culture & Society, 16(2), 175–93.
  • Morris, R. (1995). All made up: Performance theory and the new anthropology of sex and gender. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24(1), 567–92.
  • Myers, K. (2016). Translating gender (troubles): Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, and the American appropriation of “french theory.” Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, 22, 91-103.
  • Nelson, L. (1999). Bodies (and spaces) do matter: The limits of performativity. Gender, Place and Culture, 6(4), 331–53.
  • Nussbaum, M. (1999). The professor of parody: The hip defeatism of Judith Butler. The New Republic, 22, 37–45.
  • Ortner, S. B. (1972). Is female to male as nature is to culture?. Feminist Studies, 1(2), 5–31.
  • Roden, F. (2001). Becoming Butlerian: On the discursive limits (and potentials) of Gender Trouble at ten years of age. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, 6(1), 25–33.
  • Rossi, I. (1973). The unconscious in the anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss. American Anthropologist, 75(1), 20–48.
  • Sanger, T. (2008). Trans governmentality: The production and regulation of gendered subjectivities. Journal of Gender Studies, 17(1), 41–53.
  • Strong, T. (2002). Kinship between Judith Butler and anthropology? A review essay. Ethnos, 67(3), 401–18.
  • Trevenna, J. (2002). Gender as performance: Questioning the ‘Butlerification’ of Angela Carter’s fiction.” Journal of Gender Studies, 11(3), 267–76.
There are 28 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Tüm Sayı
Authors

Anlam Filiz 0000-0002-5415-7156

Publication Date October 15, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 8 Issue: 16

Cite

APA Filiz, A. (2020). SUBVERTING LÉVI-STRAUSS’S STRUCTURALISM: READING GENDER TROUBLE AS “TWISTED BRICOLAGE”. HUMANITAS - Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 8(16), 171-186. https://doi.org/10.20304/humanitas.729077