Um corpo sem carne: considerações críticas sobre os limites do “materialismo” de Judith Butler.

Abstract

The theory of gender performativity as proposed by Judith Butler is accused of flirting with an unrestricted ‘semiologization’ of the world, positioning the body in a way that elides its concreteness. In this essay, we focus on the meanings attributed by Butler to the notion of "materiality of the body", as presented in her classic Bodies That Matter (1993), which has recently received its first translation into Portuguese. Joining the polemic concerning Butler's ‘failed materialism’, we identify that the author mobilizes two "modalities of materiality" in her writings, both of which, we argue, are considerably limited by an exaggerated inclination toward the discursive. Finally, we advocate, following insights from new materialist scholars, the need to rescue/construct a notion of corporeal materiality situated beyond the lack of concreteness that pervades many of the current feminist considerations about bodies.