Blog Prompt 8 for Nuclear Futures Class, Due by April 16 (Group C)

1) In “Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly,” Butler proposes that “we have to ask whether it is right that verbalization remains the norm for thinking about expressive political action” (18) in the twenty-first century. Elaborate on the role of precarity and vulnerability in Butler’s discussion of the political force of embodied assemblies, drawing connections to the crucial role of bodies in nuclear abolition movements.

2) Alexander Brown argues that “social movements in Tokyo today are defined less by shared ideological commitments or formal group membership than by practices that intervene in and transform public spaces” (48). Offer a reading of the content and context of Frying Dutchman’s video “HumanERROR,” putting your analysis in conversation with Brown’s discussion of contemporary social movements and Butler’s notions of bodies resisting.

*Frying Dutchman’s “HumanERROR” was performed and recorded in Kyoto very soon after 3.11 and went viral when uploaded.

3) Drawing on at least two of the presentations by invited speakers, comment on how the workshop “Nuclear Futures in the Post-Fukushima Age” contributed to your thinking on the environmental humanities in general and/or nuclear futures specifically.