Spellbinding Stories. Gender Theory and Georges Sorel's Concept of Social Myth

Abstract

This paper explores the potential of Georges Sorel's concept of social myth for contemporary feminist theory that focuses on performativity. It therefore represents not a historical analysis of Sorel's concept, but an attempt to adapt it to contemporary contexts. This effort of updating possible uses of Sorelian theory in feminist contexts hinges on the interest shared by Sorelian and gender theory in the performative and normative aspects of narrative. Taking into account the ways in which narrative may be seen to share with myth both constraining and liberating performative dimensions, I distinguish between ideological myth and social myth. Using Judith Butler's theory of citation, I define ideological myth as being instituted through reiterations of legitimate identities which, through these reiterations, become normative. However, as Butler argues, such normative discourses (in my terms, those which anchor ideological myths) are instituted at the expense of a repudiated zone of alterity. Examining the common status of Sorel's socialist radicals and contemporary feminist radicals in their belonging to a repudiated zone of alterity, I argue that it is in such uninhabitable areas of social life that social myths are born. I acknowledge the fact that for Butler social change can happen through citing the norm so that it exceeds its intended disciplinary effects, and I note that, on the contrary, in Sorel's case a social myth expresses a complete break with institutionalised worldviews. Yet, I argue, it is possible to re-evaluate Sorelian theory for use within contemporary gender theory that addresses normative and performative discourses.