Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?

Judith Butler’s Frames of War is a philosophical and critical investigation into the entanglements of violence, war, and political reductions of human life. Butler shines a light on processes of dehumanization through political ‘framing’ that render subjects’ lives ungrievable and thus allow for the perpetuation of violence in contemporary warfare. Butler posits that the ability to designate lives as grievable or expendable is a crucial aspect of contemporary power structures. Centralizing an incisive analysis of the language, media, and narratives of war, Butler unveils the discursive and visual mechanisms and methods that states mobilize to manage public perception and legitimize acts of violence as a form of regulated affect.   

Butler, a renowned philosopher and critic, draws on a rich interdisciplinary framework of political theory, cultural and media studies. Notably, their analysis in Frames of War builds on Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence which explores questions of the vulnerability, retaliation, and violence of the US Bush administration in the wake of 9/11.  

Resonant with Giorgio Agamben’s notion of ‘bare life’ and Slavoj Žižek’s discussion in Violence (2008) on media presentations of war subjects that leave the killing of some ignored or dismissed (11), Butler examines how such structural framing allows for certain lives to be protected whereas others are excluded and thereby made ‘disposable’ and ‘ungrievable’ in national perception. According to Butler, distinctive framing methods as representational norms are employed to modify the perception of certain groups such as Muslim subjects, presenting them as less than human and undeserving of consideration, thereby facilitating the justification and normalization of violence. Butler argues state powers utilize framing to erase individuality and increase anonymity of some as a manipulation of the “terms of appearance” that determine subjects’ guilt without evidence (41). Consequently, those deemed ‘ungrievable’ are made to bear increased exposure to violence (53). The deliberate use of framing to selectively mould perceptions is a crucial aspect of this devaluation and is deemed essential to the execution of warfare (26). The concept of precarity is hence central to Butler’s discussion, positing precarity as a condition of all social life, thereby illuminating how such precarity is weaponized and made to function as a way to evade moral responsibility. Utilizing several different case studies, Butler shows how through discursive and visual ‘framing’ certain lives are posited as a threat to national security, making them subject of increased surveillance and restriction, thereby allowing perpetrators to commit atrocities in the name of war without risking retribution at home, thus facilitating the birth of hero-narratives of perpetrators of war violence. Butler calls attention to implicit societal complicity in structural, war-time violence and dehumanization through the participation in the perpetuation of such frames.  

Although Butler presents a highly sophisticated inquiry into the discursive and affective perpetration of war violence in Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?, some shortcomings must be noted. Taking a predominantly Western focus, the book has been criticized by scholars as taking an overly universalising stance that ought to have been addressed (O’Gorman 2014). Moreover, while Butler’s discussion offers a critical and theoretical analysis of violence, it can be noted that a practical, legal analysis could have strengthened the discussion. Regardless, Frames presents an essential analysis of discursive, political practices of war and violence, and may be beneficial for researchers engaging with questions of responsibility, accountability, and morality. 

Bibliography 

O’Gorman, Daniel. “‘[N]ew Constellations for Thinking about Normativity’: Rethinking Judith Butler’s ‘Frame’ with Reference to Dave Eggers’ What Is the What.” Textual Practice, vol 29, no 4, 2015, pp. 653–674.
 

Author of this entry: Mohana Zwaga.

Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? Verso, 2009.