Identity, Performative Subjectivity, and the Politics of Disidentification

This paper investigates the possibility of the politics of disidentification, which invents the voice and stake of the new community of equality by reinterpreting the notion of performative subjectivity. Reinterpreting the notion of performative subjectivity submitted by Judith Butler and following Jacques Rancière, It is argued that the politics of disidentification transforms the discourses, laws, and symbols treated as universal categories into democratic inscriptions, which will, in turn, operate as practical words for the political performances of the people. This paper demonstrates through three Korean examples; The Yongsan Demonstration, The Multicultural Festival, and The Ignorant Poet that the universal categories, which are in fact symbolic capital distributed according to the given social order, can be disidentified and reconstructed into practical manifestations of new identity and contribute to the creation of the community of equality.