Beyond Secular Autonomy? The Concept of Emancipation According to Saba Mahmood and Judith Butler

Abstract

The article deals with a feminist critique of the secular notion of autonomy as a normative basis for the emancipation of the subject. It does so on the basis of discussions related to the so-called post-secular turn in feminist thought. The text is based on a comparison and interpretation of the theoretical insights of Saba Mahmood and Judith Butler. According to Mahmood, the poststructuralist critique of the Enlightenment conception of the subject, as seen in Butler, still places too much emphasis on secular detachment from tradition. In contrast, Saba Mahmood's approach seeks to rehabilitate a 'consolidationist' conception of the subject through which a more positive interpretation of religious ethics can be made, especially (but not only) in the case of Muslim women. The text alsoshows, however, that while Mahmood's reflections challenge Judith Butler's notion of performative identity they connect wellto her later reflections on the precarity of life. The arcticle concludes by assessing to what extent and in what sense the critique of the autonomy of the subjectput forward here can be evaluated as post-secular.

Keywords

• judith butler
• saba mahmood
• postsecular turn
• autonomy of subject