Lynette Dixon
Throughout
this book, I have had the following questions: where the line between self and
community exists, if there is a line at all, and if there even be a line?
Chapter 17, Public Grievablity left me asking the same questions but I feel as
if the answer to these questions lie in their discussion of the performing
body. Butler states that performance makes it possible to articulate “a voice
of the people from the singularity and the obduracy of the body, a voice at
once individual and social’ another is the reproduction of community or
sociality itself.” (175) Therefore in performance, the body no longer holds the
same limitations, it is no longer tied to one self, and holds many more
possibilities.
I think I always understood that they were
calling for a radical subjectivity and a radical body but I just didn’t know
what that looked like. I think that it is the performative self/body that is
the alternative. In performance, the obduracy of the body is manipulated so
that a person can be both self and other. With this body it is possible for
there both to be a line between the two and for there to be no line at all
depending on the moment of performance. I think that it is because of this possibility
that I could never quite pinpoint the answers to my questions.
I agree with your analysis. With the crosscutting themes of performativity and oppression, there’s the question of how does a person or group relay their message to a society that does not count them as equal. I think your use of Butler’s quote; “a voice at once individual and social”(175) perfectly hits the solution on the nose. When we use our bodies for something beyond ourselves, whether in a public demonstration or through performance art, our actions become bigger than personal motivations and belong to everyone. Art is something that belongs to everyone and can be used. Everyone who participates in the various forms of performativity begins their actions with personal reasons for joining, but once it becomes public, the message and reasons behind the actions no longer belong to the individual and can be interpreted and used for a larger cause.
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