Citizen: An American Lyric
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Themes
All Themes Bigotry, Implicit Bias, and Legitimacy Identity and Sense of Self Anger and Emotional Processing History and Erasure
Quotes
Characters
All Characters The Protagonist (“You”) The Speaker Serena Williams Judith Butler Zora Neale Hurston Zinedine Zidane Marco Materazzi Trayvon Martin James Craig Anderson Mark Duggan Frantz Fanon Frederick Douglass Hennessy Youngman (Jayson Musson) The Protagonist’s Partner Mary Catherine Mariana Alves
Symbols
All Symbols Headaches Tennis
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Citizen: An American Lyric

by

Claudia Rankine
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Judith Butler Character Analysis

Judith Butler is a philosopher and public intellectual whose work revolves around gender, politics, ethics, and queer theory. In Citizen, the protagonist attends a lecture given by Butler, where Butler explains that the reason language is capable of hurting people is that simply existing makes people “addressable,” opening them up to whatever others might say to or about them. Hearing this marks an important moment for the protagonist, who suddenly realizes that—contrary to her previous belief—people of color aren’t invisible when surrounded by white people, but “hypervisible.” This idea corresponds not only with her thoughts about the professional tennis community’s mistreatment of Serena Williams, but also about the author Zora Neale Hurston’s phrase, “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.”

Judith Butler Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric

The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by Judith Butler or refer to Judith Butler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bigotry, Implicit Bias, and Legitimacy Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Not long ago you are in a room where someone asks the philosopher Judith Butler what makes language hurtful. You can feel everyone lean in. Our very being exposes us to the address of another, she answers. We suffer from the condition of being addressable. Our emotional openness, she adds, is carried by our addressability. Language navigates this.

For so long you thought the ambition of racist language was to denigrate and erase you as a person. After considering Butler's remarks, you begin to understand yourself as rendered hypervisible in the face of such language acts. Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are present.

Related Characters: The Protagonist (“You”), Judith Butler
Bigotry, Implicit Bias, and Legitimacy Theme Icon
Identity and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
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Judith Butler Quotes in Citizen: An American Lyric

The Citizen: An American Lyric quotes below are all either spoken by Judith Butler or refer to Judith Butler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bigotry, Implicit Bias, and Legitimacy Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

Not long ago you are in a room where someone asks the philosopher Judith Butler what makes language hurtful. You can feel everyone lean in. Our very being exposes us to the address of another, she answers. We suffer from the condition of being addressable. Our emotional openness, she adds, is carried by our addressability. Language navigates this.

For so long you thought the ambition of racist language was to denigrate and erase you as a person. After considering Butler's remarks, you begin to understand yourself as rendered hypervisible in the face of such language acts. Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all the ways that you are present.

Related Characters: The Protagonist (“You”), Judith Butler
Bigotry, Implicit Bias, and Legitimacy Theme Icon
Identity and Sense of Self Theme Icon
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
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