Kristevaís thinking, as does Nancy Fraser. Butlerís assessment of
Kristeva leads her to an important conclusion in Bodies That Matter
(1993):
Although the political discourses that mobilize identity categories tend to
cultivate identifications in the service of a political goal, it may be that the
persistence of disidentification is equally crucial to the rearticulation of demo-
cratic contestation.^33In favour of disidentification, Butler argues that ëparadoxically
ìrepresentationî will be shown to make sense for feminism only when
the subject of ìwomenî is nowhere presumed.í^34 Butlerís concept of
disidentification whereby ëthe subject of ìwomenî is nowhere pre-
sumedí is central to understanding the work of the female poets.
Whereas Smyth lamented the ways in which the female subject is
never a subject in patriarchal discourse, Butler utilizes this point of
non-identification as a strategy of resistance with her concept of a
feminist disidentification that constitutes a more critical approach to
the construction of identity. The above quotation from Butler also
highlights the triple meaning of the word ësubjectí which can mean
ëtopicí, ëany person owing obedience to anotherí and ëa thinking or
feeling entity with a conscious mindí.^35 The play of meanings that can
be found around the word ësubjectí demonstrates the way in which
ësubjectivityí can be tied at a linguistic level to ësubjectioní. Whereas
Kristeva imagines a non-identifiable void as the only space that resists
colonization, Butler more fruitfully looks to disidentification and the
ëoutsidersí at the ëtenuous bordersí of representation who ëcounter the
boundaries of discourseí. Butlerís concept of disidentification takes
further the notion of disposition which was explored in the discussion
of Paul Muldoon since it moves from critiquing the positioning of the
subject, to critiquing the way in which identity positions the subject.
Her discussion of disidentification as ëcrucial to the rearticulation of
democratic contestationí also provides a further example of how
feminist and post-colonial theorization of identity meets.
33 Butler, Bodies That Matter, p.4.
34 Butler, Gender Trouble, p.6.
35 The Concise Oxford Dictionary, ed., Della Thompson (Oxford: Clarendon, 9th
edn., 1995), p.1387