What should I read before reading Gender Trouble by Judith Butler?
Problem Child 2: The Novelization
>>8019506
I've heard she was heavily influenced by Foucault.
>>8019567
i heard that foucault was a girl
>>8019580
one of my professors told me he was gay too lmao
people will say anything to disparage a genius
>>8019597
kek
>>8019608
Our first actual meme president. Not afraid to bankrupt the US economy and affect the rest of the world. The end is near. ;)
I actually don't give a fuck.
>>8019506
It's a good idea to read Foucault like the guy above said. Archaeology of Knowledge will give you a good overview of his intellectual framework.
Butler assumes a fairly deep knowledge of structuralist and post-structuralist theory. Also of philosophy since Hegel. But you can often get caught in the trap of reading x to understand y, and then you're back at reading the Greeks.
I'd say dive in. You'll probably understand most of it. What you don't you can make a note of and look up.
>>8019621
OP here.
>Archaeology of Knowledge will give you a good overview of his intellectual framework.
Thanks! Do you think it would be more relevant to read History of Sexuality, Vol. 1 instead? Or this one? (or both)
>>8019618
hyperreal meme dystopia can be pretty comfy 2bh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4IjHz2yIo
>>8019624
Really, don't do this. Don't read Archaeology of Knowledge. People keep saying it is representative of his method, but it really, really isn't and it's extremely obscurantist. I doubt whether anon actually read it or, if anon did, whether anon read the rest of Foucault's ouevre. Archaeology is one of the least helpful books in Foucault's ouevre. It's the last book of his archaeological period in which he responds to criticisms he received on his earlier works (particularly The Order of Things). As a result, you have a book which doesn't fit at all and contradicts many of the things he said before (and in the book itself). You're better off reading books where he applies his method to cases.
Also, it makes much more sense reading History of Sexuality Vol 1. (Foucault's genealogical period), which comes much, much closer to what Butler's talking about. Actually, Butler was influenced by Foucault's genealogical period, and refers to and draws on ideas from History of Sexuality multiple times, not his archaeological period - and definitely not AK. Makes no sense reading Archaeology of Knowledge, and you'll probably be discouraged reading Foucault any further.
By all means read Foucault. He is one of the most important, insightful, and exciting philosophers of the 20th century. But do yourself a favour by not reading Archaeology of Knowledge, or only after having read anything else he wrote.
As for useful books reading before Butler, it helps being familiar with the basics of social constructionism. She expands and critiques this by placing bodies, matter, and the process of materialisation at the centre of her work. Berger & Luckmann's Social Construction of Reality provides a neat framework for this, a milestone in social theory. It helps understanding the effects of the performances Butler's talking about.
Have fun.
>>8019762
Also, don't forget Bodies That Matter, or read that instead (even though Gender Trouble is the bigger book). BTM discusses and illustrates more in detail and more fully the processes that are central to her work and theory. Gender Trouble spends a lot of time discussing other discipline's take on gender and sex.
Depends on what you're more interested in.
![Aspergers-ForDummies-cover[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/phUz2JT.jpg "Aspergers-ForDummies-cover[1].jpg")
>>8019506
>>8019506
Kristeva, Irigaray -> Butler if you want to understand what she's adding to gender theory
Autin, Foucault, Derrida -> Butler for the concepts she's using
Isn't a significant portion of the book about My Antonia and Willa Cather? That'd be helpful too I imagine (I might be misremembering. I only read sections of Gender Trouble and BtM)
>>8019762
Thank you for useful post. I live abroad but will return home soonish where I have (possibly) a copy of History of Sexuality (the big 1000 pager). I'm not sure to read or not. I've recently read the Ethics, Critique of Pure Reason, Phenomenology of Spirit, Capital, and largely tossed PoMo shit behind me (having once professed an interest in college, not that I actually read much). I'm thinking maybe now that I've developed the habits of a real reader I ought to re-examine some of that shit. On the other hand, I remember it mostly being bullshit.
So, while I'm sure your answer is "worth it," I'd love a more detailed recommendation/review. Even if it's somewhat off topic.
>>8019567
Yup. Insofar as Foucault was interested in the way the individual is constituted by the dominant ideological structures of the time, as well as tracing a so-called "history of the present" to see continuities & discontinuities in terms of our views on things like madness & punishment. You'll notice that Butler's project involves similarly deconstructing her subject as a social product, as well as looking to the texts of previous thinkers like Simone de Beauvoir and critiquing their ideas about womanhood with respect to historical & social context.
OP, in answer to your actual question, you don't have to read much in advance in order to understand the content of Butler. But if you want to understand the context and importance of her work within the "general discourse," then the anons before me have offered worthy suggestions. Happy reading! If there's things about it you want to discuss, you know where to go.
Monique Wittig's "The straight mind and other essays". She's one of the biggest influence of Butler and the collection of her essays is pretty short. It's a hard read though if you know nothing about feminism, I'd recommend "The Second Sex" of course and "The practice of power and belief in nature", the later articles summarizing nicely, but extremely densely, the main tenets of french feminism which deeply influenced Wittig.
>>8019506
the entire western cannon
>>8021541
Not gonna lie, I just got out of a year-long course where we read (quite a number of) the "foundational texts of Western philosophy" in sequence, beginning with Plato and ending with Butler. Interesting to see the progression.
>>8022524
mind sharing what you read?
>>8022801
Certainly. This is a comprehensive list of the books we had to buy, but it doesn't cover some important texts we read as handouts/pdfs, like Adorno's "Dialectic of Enlightenment."
>>8022850
I also recognize there's quite a few thinkers not on here who are pretty essential figures in Western philosophy, like Hegel, Heidegger, Hume, Habermas, Husserl (just to name the H's), but I think the professor was just trying to craft a particular narrative and these were the texts that best lent themselves to that. We also discussed thinkers not listed on here when they were central to our analyses of other texts (Schopenhauer with Nietzsche, Lacan with Freud, Kristeva with Butler, etc).
In case people were gonna sperg out about their fav philosophers not being on this syllabus
>>8022850
seems like a Western political philsophy course (a general Western philosophy course would be.... nearly impossible)
looks like it was fun!
>>8022910
Yes, now that you mention it, it certainly does dip into political philosophy quite a bit. But the topics we mostly focused on were the dichotomy (insofar as one exists) between nature & civilization, different representations of subjectivity (with regards to reason and agency/identity), truth (of course), Enlightenment, and how ideological structures are reproduced or discontinued/the possibility for change.
>>8022850
You're a sophomore at Columbia College?
don't bother, OP
you're really gonna let a fuckin androgynous dyke tell you what women and men really are and aren't?
that's like taking diet advice from a diabetic
I seriously hope the feminists/gender/tumblr ppl on here are being ironic.
>>8023025
Bingo. Who's asking?
>>8019618
You know nothing about politics
>>8019618
Trump's not just a great dealmaker he's THE dealmaker.The very definition of an alpha male, not afraid to drop UN-PC truthbombs unprefaced by 'trigger warnings' of any sort. Trump will Make America Great Again and there's nothing you can do to stop him
>>8023193
>you're really gonna let a fuckin androgynous dyke tell you what women and men really are and aren't?
>androgynous dyke
Well, sounds like she's well versed enough in both genders then.
>>8023522
>He doesn't know that hardly any Amerifats vote and only 20% aged between 18 and 25 vote
speaking of gender trouble, i was wackin it to sissy hypnos for like a month and finally decided to order some sexy ass lingerie, which i just tried out for a fap session, it was ok got off one decent nut and one mediocre one, but now i'm feeling super masc like i'm in the mood to pound the fuck out of some punani, wtf like a week ago i was like fuck pussy i want sexy outfits to wear and big dicks to suck on, now i'm like hmm whose pussy should i stretch out and demolish
>>8022850
>This is a comprehensive list of the books we had to buy, but it doesn't cover some important texts we read as handouts/pdfs, like Adorno's "Dialectic of Enlightenment."
>mfw ppl actually pay money to be told what to read
the education industry needs to be disrupted by some silicon valley gees
>>8024834
>implying I actually pay for the books
>implying I don't also get a shit ton of financial aid to cover tuition
And what money I do pay goes toward talking to and learning brilliant professors & making connections. Anyone who says otherwise is probably just bitter desu
>>8024879
learning from*
