Post-National Foundation of Judith Butler’s and Rossi Braidotti’s Relational Subjectivity

Authors

  • Adam Burke Carmichael University of Victoria

Keywords:

nation, nationalism, borders, boundaries, affect, feminist theory, settler colonialism, indigenous politics

Abstract

This article draws on examples of Indigenous conceptualizations of nationhood to question the post-national foundation of Judith Butler’s and Rossi Braidotti’s theories of affective subjectivity. The article concludes that the responsibility to respect certain political boundaries is necessary in fostering non-oppressive affective relations. 

Résumé
Cet article s’appuie sur des exemples de conceptualisations autochtones de la notion de nation pour remettre en question le fondement post-national des théories de la subjectivité affective de Judith Butler et Rossi Braidotti. L’article conclut que la responsabilité de respecter certaines limites politiques est nécessaire pour favoriser des relations affectives non oppressives.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Adam Burke Carmichael, University of Victoria

Adam Carmichael is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of Victoria. His current research examines the intersecting histories of government policy towards Doukhobor settlers and Indigenous peoples in Canada with the aim of better understanding the fluid character of settler colonialism and working toward strategies for decolonization.

References

Alfred, Taiaiake, and Jeff Corntassel. 2005. “Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism.” Government and Opposition 40 (4): 597-614.

Altamirano-Jiménez, Isabel. 2010. “Indigenous Women, Nationalism, and Feminism.” In States of Race: Critical Race Feminism for the 21st Century, edited by Sherene Razack, Malinda Smith, and Sunera Thobani, 111-125. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.

Armstrong, Jeanette. 2005. “Invocation: The Real Power of Aboriginal Women (Keynote Address: The National Symposium on Aboriginal Women of Canada, University of Lethbridge, 19 October 1989).” In Open Boundaries: A Canadian Women’s Studies Reader, Second Edition, edited by Barbara A. Crow and Lise Gotell, 74-76. Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada.

Baraitser, Lisa. 2010. “On Reading Transpositions: A Response to Rosi Braidotti’s Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics.” Subjectivity 3: 125-130.

Barker, Adam. 2009. “The Contemporary Reality of Canadian Imperialism: Settler Colonialism and the Hybrid Colonial State.” The American Indian Quarterly 33 (3): 325-351.

Barman, Jean. 1997/1998. “Taming Aboriginal Sexuality: Gender, Power and Race in British Columbia, 1850-1900.” BC Studies 115/116: 237-266.

Bell, Vikki. 2008. “From Performativity to Ecology: On Judith Butler and Matters of Survival.” Subjectivity 25: 395-412.

Borrows, John. 2010. Canada’s Indigenous Constitution. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Braidotti, Rosi. 2006a. Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

____. 2006b. “Affirmation versus Vulnerability: On Contemporary Ethical Debates.” Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy 10 (1): 235-254.

____. 2010. “Powers of Affirmation: Response to Lisa Baraitser, Patrick Hanafin and Clare Hemmings.” Subjectivity 3 (2): 140-148.

____. 2011. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. Second Edition. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Braidotti, Rosi, and Judith Butler. 1994. “Feminism by Any Other Name.” Differences 6 (2-3): 27-61.

Brennan, Teresa. 2004. The Transmission of Affect. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Butler, Judith. 2004a. Precarious Life. New York, NY: Verso.

____. 2004b. Undoing Gender. New York, NY: Routledge.

Butler, Judith, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 2007. Who Sings the Nation-State?: Language, Politics, Belonging. New York, NY: Seagull Books.

Cardinal, Harold, and Walter Hildebrand. 2000. Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan: Our Dream Is That Our Peoples Will One Day Be Clearly Recognized As Nations. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press.

Cvetkovich, Ann. 2012. “Depression is Ordinary: Public Feelings and Saidiya Hartman’s Lose Your Mother.” Feminist Theory 13 (2): 131-146.

Coulthard, Glen S. 2007. “Subjects of Empire: Indigenous Peoples and the ‘Politics of Recognition’ in Canada.” Contemporary Political Theory 6: 437-460.

Coulthard, Glen Sean. 2014. “Essentialism and the Gendered Politics of Aboriginal Self-Government.” In Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition, 79-103. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

D’Arcangelis, Carol Lynne. 2010. “Exploring Indigenous Feminist Relational Sovereignty: Feminist Conversations, Non-Colonizing Solidarities, Inclusive Nations.” Atlantis 34 (2): 127-138.

Hemmings, Clare. 2005. “Invoking Affect.” Cultural Studies 19 (5): 548-567.

____. 2010. On Reading Transpositions: A Response to Rosi Braidotti’s Transpositions: On Nomadic Ethics.” Subjectivity 3 (2): 136-140.

____. 2012. “Affective Solidarity: Feminist Reflexivity and Political Transformation.” Feminist Theory 13 (2): 147-161.

Jafri, Beenash. 2012. “Privilege vs. Complicity: People of Colour and Settler Colonialism.”

Equity Matters, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, March 21. http://www.ideas-idees.ca/blog/privilege-vs-complicity-people-colour-and-settler-colonialism.

Lawrence, Bonita. 2004. ‘Real’ Indians and Others. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Lawrence, Bonita, and Enakshi Dua. 2005. “Decolonizing Antiracism.” Social Justice 32 (4): 120-143.

Maracle, Lee. 1996. I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism. Vancouver, BC: Press Gang Publishers.

Menzies, Charles. 2013. “Standing on the Shore with Saaban: An Anthropological Rapprochement with Indigenous Intellectual Traditions.” Collaborative Anthropologies 6 (1): 171-199.

Monture, Patricia A. 2009. “Women’s Words: Power, Identity and Indigenous Sovereignty.” In First Voices: An Aboriginal Women’s Reader, edited by Patricia A. Monture and Patricia D. McGuire, 116-125. Toronto, ON: Inanna Publications and Education.

Monture-Angus, Patricia. 1999. Journeying Forward: Dreaming First Nations’ Independence. Halifax, NS: Fernwood.

Morgensen, Scott Lauria. 2010. “Homonationalism: Theorizing Settler Colonialism within Queer Modernities.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16 (1-2): 105-131.

Native Women’s Association of Canada. 2011. NWAC Workshop on Reclaiming Our Nations Initiative:Nation-Building and Re-Building—Gathering Women’s Wisdom. https://www.nwac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2011_NWAC_Reclaiming_Our_Nations_Initiative_Workshop_Report_Victoria_BC.pdf.

Oliver, Kelly. 2004. The Colonization of Psychic Space: A Psychoanalytic Social Theory of Oppression. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Pedwell, Carolyn. 2012. “Affective (Self-) Transformations: Empathy, Neoliberalism and International Development Feminist Theory 13 (2): 163-179.

Pedwell, Carolyn, and Anne Whitehead. 2012. “Affecting Feminism: Questions of Feeling in Feminist Theory.” Feminist Theory 13 (2): 115-129.

Phung, Malissa. 2011. “Are People of Colour Settlers Too?” In Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation through the Lens of Cultural Diversity, edited by Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar, and Mike DeGagné, 289-298. Ottawa, ON: Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Razack, Sherene. 2002. Race, Space, and the Law: Unmapping a White Settler Society. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.

Saranillio, Dean Itsuji. 2013. “Why Asian Settler Colonialism Matters: A Thought Piece on Critiques, Debates, and Indigenous Difference.” Settler Colonial Studies 3 (3-4): 280-294.

Segal, Lynne. 2008. “After Judith Butler: Identities, Who Needs Them?” Subjectivity 25: 381-394.

Sharma, Nandita, and Cynthia Wright. 2008/2009. “Decolonizing Resistance, Challenging Colonial States.” Social Justice 35 (3): 120-138.

Silman, Janet, ed. 1987. Enough is Enough: Aboriginal Women Speak Out. Toronto, ON: Women’s Press.

Simpson, Leanne. 2011. Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back: Stories of Nishnaabeg Re-Creation, Resurgence, and a New Emergence. Winnipeg, MB: Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Smith, Andrea. 2005. Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

Sunseri, Lina. 2009. “Sky Woman Lives On: Contemporary Examples of Mothering the Nation.” In First Voices: An Aboriginal Women’s Reader, edited by Patricia A. Monture and Patricia D. McGuire, 54-62. Toronto, ON: Inanna Publications and Education.

____. 2011. Being Again of One Mind: Oneida Women and the Struggle for Decolonization. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

The Kino-nda-niimi Collective. 2014. The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement. Winnipeg, MB: Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Todd, Zoe. 2014. “An Indigenous Feminist’s Take on the Ontological Turn: ‘Ontology’ is Just Another Word for Colonialism.” Thoughts Of An Urban Metis Nomad (And Sometimes A Mouthy Michif) Blog, October 24.

Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. 2012. “Decolonization is not a metaphor.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society 1 (1): 1-40.

Unist’ot’en Camp. n.d. “Free, Prior and Informed Consent Protocol.” https://unistotencamp.wordpress.com/free-prior-and-informed-consent-protocol/.

___. 2010. “Laksamashyu Trespass Notice,” August 23. https://unistotencamp.wordpress.com/2010-links/laksamashyu-tresspass-notice-2010-august-23/.

___. 2014. “The Unist’ot’en People will stop the northern gateway,” February 7. https://www.popularresistance.org/the-unistoten-people-will-stop-the-northern-gateway/.

Waziyatawin. 2011. “Understanding Colonizer Status.” Unsettling America Blog, September 6.

Williamson, Tara. 2014. “#IdleNoMore Provides Us With Opportunity to Examine Nationhood.” In The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement, edited by The Kino-nda-niimi Collective, 152-153. Winnipeg, MB: Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

Wilson, Shawn. 2008. Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Blackpoint, NS: Fernwood.

Wolfe, Patrick. 2013. “Recuperating Binarism: A Heretical Introduction.” Settler Colonial Studies 3 (3-4): 257-279.

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2016-10-28