Moser Article for Diacritics FINAL 5-14-22[6].pdf (266.69 kB)
Feminist styles of immanent critique: Judith Butler and Denise Riley
Taking up the question of style, I argue that this term provides a generative framework for reassessing the historical challenges of feminist writing and politics. To develop my argument, I read Judith Butler's philosophy alongside Denise Riley's poems, historical criticism, and philosophical prose, proposing that both writers are inventive participants in the tradition of immanent critique. I demonstrate how feminist questioning of linguistic conventions and social norms is enfolded in Butler's paratextual reflections on philosophical grammar and in Riley's poetic and theoretical efforts to acknowledge her uneasy relationship to lyric. Any dialogue between philosophy and poetry returns us to the longstanding debate about the value of these respective disciplines. I conclude by proposing that Riley and Butler encourage us to consider that each demands the other as a supplement—a necessity that emerges from the need to account for the collective life in which language is embedded.
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Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
DiacriticsISSN
0300-7162Publisher
Project MuseExternal DOI
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1Volume
50Page range
90-111Department affiliated with
- English Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2023-04-17First Open Access (FOA) Date
2023-05-22First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2023-05-22Usage metrics
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