She’s the sassy American philosopher who took Simone de Beauvoir’s assertion that “one is not born a woman, but rather becomes one”, and brought it to it’s logical conclusion in 1990’s Gender Trouble. That’s right, Judith Butler is totally back and she’s blowing minds.
Yesterday marked the launch of Judy’s newest book, Who Sings the Nation State? Language, Politics, Belonging. The tome, co-writ with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is the latest bitchslap in the face of the political status quo. Publisher copy after the jump.

“What is contained in a state has become ever more plural whilst the boundaries of a state have become ever more fluid. No longer does a state naturally come with a nation. In a world of migration and shifting allegiances – caused by cultural, economic, military and climatic change – the state is a more provisional place and its inhabitants more stateless.”
Right?? Touching on Palestine and the Star Spangled Banner [Spanish version], Who Sings promises to be a timely foray into globalization by a tag-team comprised of two of the greatest living Marxist-feminist scholars. Woo-hoo!