Applying theory across cases as mere illustration can misrepresent the cases.

Evidence

Despite these resonances between Butler’s notion of performativity and the mosque participants’ understanding of virtuous action, it would be a mistake to assume that the logic of piety practices can be so easily accommodated within Butler’s theoretical language. Butler herse lf cautions against such a “technological approach” to theory wherein “the theory is articulated on its self-suffi ency, and then shifts register only for the pedagogical purpose of n.. lustrating an already accomplished truth” ( Butler, Laclau, and Zizek 2000, 26 ). — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1108

Categorization

• QUESTION: Where does this methodological caution lead Mahhood’s own reading? She is flagging that the mosque study must not just slot piety into a Butlerian frame.
• XREF: connects to: Identical terms can mask different concepts, so concepts must be traced to their sources. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1616