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Insubordinate Plasticity: Judith Butler and Catherine Malabou

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2020

Natalie Helberg Open the ORCID record for Natalie Helberg [Opens in a new window]
Natalie Helberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, 170 St. George St, Toronto, ONM5R 2M8
*
Corresponding author. Email: natalie.helberg@mail.utoronto.ca
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Abstract

In this article, I explore the relationship between performativity, as it appears in Judith Butler's work, and plasticity, as it appears in the work of Catherine Malabou. I argue that these concepts are isomorphic. Butler and Malabou both hold that resistance to contemporary forms of power, or “insubordination,” is contingent on a subject's ability to become other than what it is; Butler articulates this ability in terms of performativity, and Malabou articulates it in terms of plasticity. I reveal the social-constructivist dimension of Malabou's work while also making apparent the extent to which Butler's work, contrary to her own way of conceptualizing it, and hence surprisingly and uneasily, presupposes a biologically basic capacity for change. Plasticity is this biologically basic capacity. Both thinkers affirm the idea that insubordinate forms of transformation can be impeded by the discourse that conditions what a subject can think. I suggest that this is an insight that must be heeded, even as I seek to affirm a form of plasticity beyond discourse.

Keywords

Judith ButlerCatherine MalabouPerformativityPlasticityInsubordinationFoucauldian Theory
Type
Articles
Information
Hypatia , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , Fall 2020 , pp. 587 - 606
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hypatia, a Nonprofit Corporation

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