“The problem of performative language brings into focus important issues concerning meaning and effects of language and leads to questions about identity identity and the nature of the subject” (Culler 94).
To understand performatives we first must understand what they are. Performative utterances do not tell about but instead perform the action of what is being talked about. This helps us view literature as an act or an event. It is not a true of false statement but a felicitous or infelicitous. (This means whether or not a statement is appropriate or inappropriate for the occasion.)
There are two kinds of literary utterances: performative and constative. Constative utterances are used in language to represent things as they are and name things that are already there ( a statement). For example saying “the court is now in session” is a constative utterance. On the other hand, performative is the rhetorical operations, the act of language, that brings things into being. For example saying “you are under arrest” is performative. “Theroists agree that we must pay attention to what literature does as much as what it says” (Culler 96).
Utterances brings characters and their actions and also ideas and concepts into being. The reader can discover that literature does not just sit on a page. It actually creates whole ideas that have never been thought of before. Rochefoucauld argues that romantic love is just a literary creation. That it had never been thought of before but brought into reality by literary utterances.
Performative language can be used to transform the world we live in by bringing new and revolutionary ideas and concepts. This use of language that was previously considered only marginal is now actively used in the world to break the link between the meaning and the intention of the speaker. It does not only apply to text on a page, it has many levels that relate to and influence our life every day.
So the main problem with constative and performative utterances comes from trying to separate them; to distinguish and identify them in literary text. It has extensively been debated and the conclusion derived is that there is an impasse; there can not be one without the other.
Group 7,
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you for a wonderful presentation and a lively discussion. Your material, to my mind, represents one of the most important ideas in literary studies today. The notion of performance allows us to look at texts in an entirely new way, and I think you did a good job showing us how.
In general this summary is very good, but I see one glaring absence. There's no Judith Butler. I think her version of the performative is incredibly important to reading literary (and non-literary) texts. There's no need to extend your summary, but keep in mind the importance of her ideas about how to understand the performative.
One final thought: be sure to proofread your work before you publish it. I do not a mind an error here or there, but too many and it begins to distract from the content of the work. Always read your work and check for obvious errors.
Keep up the good work.
Best,
James