Judith Butler's 'Frame' and Dave Eggers' What Is the What

What is it about?

This article takes issue with Judith Butler's recent work on the 'framing' of the war on terror in the Western media, focusing particularly on her discussion of poems by detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Using Dave Eggers' biographical novel What Is the What (2006) as a case study, it argues that literature often reveals the framing of war to be more complex than Butler gives it credit for, and that literary texts can potentially challenge this framing in ways more nuanced than those she describes.

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Why is it important?

The article challenges a significant intellectual intervention in post-9/11 political discourse by Judith Butler, one of the leading critical theorists in the world today. It does so not in order to dismiss Butler's important work in this area, but rather to push her thinking further. The article also places emphasis on the potential impact that literary texts might have on shaping critical thinking about politics, culture and identity in the contemporary world.