Mothers and Fathers, Who Needs Them ? Review Essay of Butler’s Antigone

Translated into German as ‘Wozu Mutter and Vater? Judith Butler Antigones Verlangen’ for Das Argument 252, (4/5) 2003, Berlin

re-regulating kinship, repudiating feminism What follows in this review essay of Antigone's Claim:kinship between life and death by Judith Butler is a deliberately wide-ranging, even loose, reading of the text, for the very reason that this short book (three lectures given for the prestigious Wellek annual lectures at University of California, Irvine) points to the need for far-reaching feminist re-attention to questions of family and kinship in contemporary political culture (Butler, 2000). Butler suggests there has been something of a retreat in feminism from fiercely disputing the neo-conservatism of current family policies.