Abstract
Anarchists and homosexuals have periodically occupied similar positions in relation to US laws and policies: both have functioned as the needed outside against which the proper inside of political order can be established and maintained. Both have blurred the relation of words to deeds, speaking words that are forbidden because the words themselves are seen as dangerous deeds. Examining the deportation case of anarchist John Turner in 1903 and the 1993 Pentagon ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, and utilizing the intellectual tools provided by Judith Butler in her analysis of speech acts, this article investigates the process of criminalizing an identity category as well as the political context from which that criminalization can be challenged. My goals are to make use of Butler’s arguments about insurrectionary speech to understand anarchism’s historical role in the American political imaginary, and to supplement Butler’s analysis with greater attention to the histories of anarchist struggle.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Austin, J.L. (1975) How to Do Things with Words, 2nd edn. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Avrich, P. (1984) The Haymarket Tragedy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Avrich, P. (1991) Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Bloom, J. (1987) Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Butler, J. (1997) Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (2004) Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. and Spivak, G.C. (2007) Who Sings the Nation State? Language, Politics, Belonging. London: Seagull Books.
Chambers, S.A. (2003) Untimely Politics. New York: New York University Press.
Chambers, S.A. and Carver, T. (2008) Judith Butler and Political Theory: Troubling Politics. New York: Routledge.
Clark, J.P. (1969) Deportation of Aliens from the United States to Europe. New York: Arno Press.
Coole, D. (2008) Butler’s phenomenological existentialism. In: T. Carver and S.A. Chambers (eds.) Judith Butler’s Precarious Politics: Critical Encounters. London: Routledge, pp. 11–27.
Dean, J. (2008) Change of address: Butler’s ethics at sovereignty’s deadlock. In: T. Carver and S.A. Chambers (eds.) Judith Butler’s Precarious Politics: Critical Encounters. London: Routledge, pp. 109–126.
Falk, C., Cole, S. and Thomas, S. (eds.) (1995) Emma Goldman: A Guide to Her Life and Documentary Sources. Alexandria, VA: Chadwyck-Healey.
Falk, C. (2005) Raising her voices: An introduction. In: C. Falk, B. Pateman and J.M. Moran (eds.) Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 2, Making Speech Free, 1902–1909. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–80.
Falk, C., Pateman, B. and Moran, J.M. (eds.) (2005) Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 2, Making Speech Free, 1902–1909. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fine, S. (1955) Anarchism and the assassination of McKinley. American Historical Review 60 (4): 777–799.
Foucault, M. (2000) The concept of the ‘dangerous individual’ in nineteenth century legal psychology. In: J.D. Faubion (ed.) Power, Translated by R. Hurley et al. New York: New Press, pp. 176–200.
Goldman, E. (1906) Mother Earth 1 (10): 1.
Goldman, E. (1970) Living My Life. New York: Dover Publications, (first published by Alfred A. Knopf, 1931).
Goyens, T. (2007) Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880–1914. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Halley, J.E. (1993) Reasoning about sodomy: Act and identity in and after Bowers v. Hardwick. Virginia Law Review 79 (7): 1721–1780.
Heckert, J. (2011) On anarchism: An interview with Judith Butler. In: J. Heckert and R. Cleminson (eds.) Anarchism and Sexuality. New York: Routledge, pp. 93–99.
Honig, B. (2001) Democracy and the Foreigner. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
New York Times. (1903) In defense of anarchy. 5 December, p. 8.
Johnson, K.R. (1997) The Antiterrorist Act, the Immigration Reform Act, and ideological requirements in the immigration laws: Important lessons for citizens and noncitizens. St. Mary’s Law Journal 28 (1): 833–882.
Knepper, P. (2008) The other invisible hand: Jews and anarchists in London before the First World War. Jewish History 22 (3): 295–315.
Lloyd, M. (2008) Towards a cultural politics of vulnerability: Precarious lives and ungrievable deaths. In: T. Carver and S.A. Chambers (eds.) Judith Butler’s Precarious Politics: Critical Encounters. London: Routledge, pp. 92–105.
Morris, A.D. (1984) The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York: Free Press.
Nichols, F.H. (1901) The anarchists in America. Outlook 118 (August): 863.
Rocker, F. (1998) The East End Years: A Stepney Childhood. London: Freedom Press.
Romeyn, E. (2008) Street Scenes: Staging the Self in Immigrant New York, 1880–1914. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Rouhani, F. (2012) Lessons from Queertopia. In: C.B. Daring, J. Rogue, D. Shannon and A. Volcano (eds.) Queering Anarchism. Oakland, CA: AK Press, pp. 77–86.
Salyer, L.E. (1995) Laws Harsh as Tigers: Chinese Immigrants and the Shaping of Modern Immigration Law. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Schurz, C. (1897) Murder as a political agency. Harper’s Weekly 41 (August): 847.
Sparks, H. (1997) Dissident citizenship: Democratic theory, political courage, and activist women. Hypatia 12 (4): 74–110.
Stone, A. (2005) Toward a genealogical feminism: A reading of Judith Butler’s political thought. Contemporary Political Theory 4 (1): 4–24.
Stansell, C. (2000) American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century. New York: Henry Holt.
Theoharis, J. (2013) The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Thomas, M. (2005) Anarchist Ideas and Counter-Cultures in Britain, 1880–1914. Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Co.
Tosti, G. (1899) Anarchistic crimes. Political Science Quarterly 14 (3): 404–417.
Turner v. Williams, 194 U.S. 279 (1904).
Zivi, K. (2008) Rights and the politics of performativity. In: T. Carver and S.A. Chambers (eds.) Judith Butler’s Precarious Politics: Critical Encounters. London: Routledge, pp. 157–170.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ferguson, K. Is it an anarchist act to call oneself an anarchist? Judith Butler, John Turner and insurrectionary speech. Contemp Polit Theory 13, 339–357 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2013.45
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2013.45