Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence

PRECARIOUS LIFE THE POWERS OF MOURNING AND VIOLENCE

•

JUDITH BUTLER

VERSO London

•

New York

First published by Verso 1004

© judith Butler 1004 All rights reserved The moral rights of the author have been asserted 1Jj 79108 64 l Ver.so

UK: 6Meard Street, London WrF o£G USA: r8o Varick Street, New York, NY 10014-46o6

www. versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

BritirA Li�rary Cataloguing in Puhlication Data

Butler, Judith P. Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence r. War on Terrorism, 1001-Moral and ethical aspects

aspects- United States

1.Violence- Political

J· Nationalism- United States 4· Mass media and public

1-

opinion- United States L Title

United States- Foreign relations- liSt century

JOJ6 . l ' j ISBN r8446700j8

f Congress Cataloging-in-Puhlication Data

Lihrary o

Butler, Judith.

Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence

I Judith Butler.

p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN r-8446 7--4

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravony 4 1 , 48

Red Cross 87

state

relativism

"subject"

1 29

representation

5 1 -7

feminism and 4&-9

1 44

rights - see human rights Rose,_ Jacqueline Roth, Kenneth 87 Rothstein, Edward

nation as 4 1 , 44-5 Summers, Lawrence

1 46

on Zionism

Rottenberg, Catherine

1 23, 1 25

on Jewishness

2

1 0 1-2, 104-1 1

1 12

1 17

Roy, A rundhati 3, 1 0, 1 5

Ta'ayush ("living together")

Rumsfeld, Donald

Tala, Alwaleed bin

50

1 2--4

1 1 6-8

!68

I NDEX vulnerability and

Taliban 8 1 , 82 Guantanamo Bay and 68, 70

September I I and

terrorism as politics of stateless 87-8

30

common 30-- 1 humanization and 43, 44--5

definitions of 4, 6 Tikkun

29-30

vulnerability 2&--9

unequally distributed

116

United N arions

Wahat ai-Salam

I 09

32

1 16

Walzer, Michael

2

as "rogue" power 56

"war on terror"

28, 34, 79, 80

responsibility and

West Bank

United States

unilateralism and

14

1 16

Women in Black 47, 1 1 6

7

Women's Coalition for a Just Peace veil

- see

burka

Vietnam War

1 18 1 50

Zionism

violence interdependence and media and

anti-Semitism and

27

history of

147�

morality and

Jews and

1 7�

versus lesbians and gays

1 1 3-5

32-3

1 23, 1 26-7

1 20-- 1 1 1 9, 1 23-5

Lawrence Summers on

1 23, 1 25