Giving a Global Account of Oneself: Narratives of the Humanitarian Atlantic

In Giving an Account of Oneself, Judith Butler asks how we justify our lives through narrative and what this means for ethical relations with others. This essay repositions Butler’s work in a humanitarian frame, foregrounding how moral commitments play out on a transatlantic scale. The humanitarian impulse is rooted, partly, in the desire to narrate oneself onto the globe, linking a savior to a suffering other, with Africa problematically positioned as the ultimate target of Western benevolence. Through analysis of NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names, this essay mobilizes Butler’s theory of the unstable, unknowable self as a resource for humanitarian ethics.