http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/07/identity-and-culture/ A blog from the Poetry Foundation where contemporary poets debate classic and contemporary poetry from America and around the world. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:01:59 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/07/identity-and-culture/#comment-4291 Emily Warn Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:03:15 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=943#comment-4291 Yesterday, I was chatting with a clerk at the post office about the risk of paying bills online vs. sending them via the notoriously slow Chicao USPO. He said, "If someone would take my identity, they would be doing me a favor. My credit score would go up." Yesterday, I was chatting with a clerk at the post office about the risk of paying bills online vs. sending them via the notoriously slow Chicao USPO. He said, “If someone would take my identity, they would be doing me a favor. My credit score would go up.”

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/07/identity-and-culture/#comment-4290 Alan Gilbert Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:18:59 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=943#comment-4290 Jasper— Thank you for the clarification. I realize that I was being reductive in my characterization of Butler's idea, and it was the "popularization" side of her notion of performed ideas that I was taking issue with more than specific formulations in her books (that said, I do see shifts in the idea of performed identities between <i>Gender Trouble</i> and <i>Bodies That Matter</i>). I'm still trying to figure out the blog-writing format, especially its more informal and chattier style. I tend to end up writing little mini-essays that at the same time don't allow for much intellectual nuance. I appreciate you providing some of that in your comment. —Alan Jasper—
Thank you for the clarification. I realize that I was being reductive in my characterization of Butler’s idea, and it was the “popularization” side of her notion of performed ideas that I was taking issue with more than specific formulations in her books (that said, I do see shifts in the idea of performed identities between Gender Trouble and Bodies That Matter). I’m still trying to figure out the blog-writing format, especially its more informal and chattier style. I tend to end up writing little mini-essays that at the same time don’t allow for much intellectual nuance. I appreciate you providing some of that in your comment.
—Alan

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/07/identity-and-culture/#comment-4289 Jasper Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:26:07 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=943#comment-4289 Hi Alan, I've been enjoying your posts. I wanted to add, however, that while there's certainly lots of good reasons to argue with Butler's notion of performativity, your characterization of it (if that's what follows your invocation of the idea) isn't quite right. Butler has been very clear that her notion of identity isn't a voluntarist one (Cf. the introduction to <i> Bodies that Matter</i>; identities aren't freely chosen in her view. And of course, she herself makes rather explicit use of Althusser's account of interpellation. For Butler, performances are always compelled, they always come at the behest of a certain violence, even (or maybe even especially) those performances that seem free. So, while it's true that to conceive of performing (freely, choicefully) a culture or identity necessitates a certain degree of privilege, this isn't at all what Butler is getting at. . . I'll leave what I think might be wrong with all this, and how privilege might be still in play, for another conversation. Hi Alan,
I’ve been enjoying your posts. I wanted to add, however, that while there’s certainly lots of good reasons to argue with Butler’s notion of performativity, your characterization of it (if that’s what follows your invocation of the idea) isn’t quite right. Butler has been very clear that her notion of identity isn’t a voluntarist one (Cf. the introduction to Bodies that Matter; identities aren’t freely chosen in her view. And of course, she herself makes rather explicit use of Althusser’s account of interpellation. For Butler, performances are always compelled, they always come at the behest of a certain violence, even (or maybe even especially) those performances that seem free. So, while it’s true that to conceive of performing (freely, choicefully) a culture or identity necessitates a certain degree of privilege, this isn’t at all what Butler is getting at. . .
I’ll leave what I think might be wrong with all this, and how privilege might be still in play, for another conversation.

]]>