Butler and Ethics

Explores the relation between politics and ethics in Butler's writings. Explores Butler's understanding of the body in relation to both politics and ethics, feminist and non-feminist. Advances ongoing debates about materiality and the body, biopolitics, affect theory, precariousness and subjectification.

Bringing together a group of internationally renowned theorists, the volume asks: has there been an ethical turn in Judith Butlers work or is the increasing emphasis on ethics the culmination of ideas in her earlier work? How do ethics relate to politics in her work, and how do they connect to her increasing concern with violence, war and conflict?Judith Butler is best known for Gender Trouble (1990), the book that introduced the idea of gender performativity. However, with the publication of Giving an Account of Oneself in 2005, it appeared that her work had taken a different turn: away from considerations of sex, gender, sexuality and politics, and towards ethics. Bringing together a group of internationally renowned theorists, the volume asks: has there been an 'ethical turn' in Butlers work or is the increasing emphasis on ethics the culmination of ideas in her earlier work? How do ethics relate to politics in her work, and how do they connect to her increasing concern with violence, war and conflict?