49 pages • 1 hour read
Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence
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Essay Topics
Butler claims that the violence unleashed by the United States in its preemptive war after 9/11 was unethical and that the United States, in its violent imperialism, helped to create the conditions that “bred” the violence of the attacks. At the same time, the author argues that to insist that the United States got what it deserved in being attacked is also deeply problematic. Why, specifically, is Butler opposed to this final response, on ethical grounds?
Butler argues that, in the case of “indefinite detention” in Guantanamo Bay, the law should not be suspended, but also argues that reinstating the law is not enough and is not what they are calling for in the argument. What else is Butler calling for, and why is the law not enough?
How do the charges of “terrorist-sympathizer” when attached to criticism of the United States’ response to 9/11 and “antisemite” when attached to criticism of Israel’s policies do similar political work?
Why does Butler believe that the Geneva Convention discriminates rather than ensures fair treatment?
Why does Butler insist that society should not work to eradicate vulnerability, if vulnerability inevitably leads to pain and death?
Butler cites the obituary as a genre that both enables and prohibits mournability when it does not allow equal access to publication. What other mechanisms of policing mournability exist in the public domain regarding humans or other species? Consider instances in which killing is systemic, such as in cases of war and slaughter.
What makes Levinas’s theory of nonviolence specifically Jewish?
How is the experience of being injured an ethical “opportunity,” according to Butler?
People tend to think of nonviolence as the emptying of the self of violent impulses and feelings, with the result being a calm and peaceful inner existence. How does Levinas challenge this definition of nonviolence?
What is the relation between injury and ethical responsibility, according to Butler?
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By Judith Butler
