Gender issues in the context of the theory of radical democracy evaluation of Judith Butler's theoretical approach

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Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Uludağ Üniversitesi, Turkey

Approval Date: 2016

Thesis Language: Turkish

Student: BURCU BAŞARAN

Supervisor: ALİ YAŞAR SARIBAY

Abstract:

This study evaluates the gender theory of Judith Butler as a radical democracy project. In this context, Butler's gender theory is associated with the theories of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the defendants of radical democracy. Concurringly, Butler, Laclau and Mouffe trace the possibility of a pluralist democracy; they are in favor of diversity, conflict, resistance relying on cooperation with power, identities open to future and politics open to future. In this regard, their theories are based on postmodern critics and poststructuralist philosophy. Butler offers the hegemony approach of Laclau and Mouffe to feminist politics. It is possible to see considerable similarities between the notion of performativity coined by Butler and the hegemony theory of Laclau and Mouffe. These two theories exhibit similarities in terms of power conception and the possibilities of social transformation. Examination of these similarities and discussing the new perspectives that hegemonic politics presented to the gender question and also the opportunities it provides constitute the main themes of this study.