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The Performative Basis of Modern Literary Theory

The Performative Basis of Modern Literary Theory 1 In the second half of How to Do Things With Words, “performative” is displaced by the term “illocutionary” (also coined by Austin), just as the earlier “constative” is displaced by “locutionary.” Searle adopts the term “illocutionary” and, except in Expression and Meaning, infrequently uses “performative. In Speech Acts, Searle makes clear his dissatisfaction with the latter term: “Austin’s original in” sight into performatives was that some utterances were not sayings, but doings of some other kind. But this point can be exaggerated” (68). It is not sentences that “act, Searle maintains repeatedly, ” but people; language “performs” only to the degree that it is the product of an intentional act (29). 2 In The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Heidegger says, “It can be shown historically that at bottom all the great philosophies since antiquity more or less explicitly took themselves to be, and as such sought to be, ontology” (12). As for Derrida, the Western tradition is repeatedly characterized in terms of the pervasive influence of a “metaphysics of presence”: “I do not believe that a single counterexample can be found in the entire history of philosophy” (“Signature” 3). COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /58 In this essay, I trace http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

The Performative Basis of Modern Literary Theory

Comparative Literature , Volume 55 (1) – Jan 1, 2003

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2003 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/-55-1-57
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

1 In the second half of How to Do Things With Words, “performative” is displaced by the term “illocutionary” (also coined by Austin), just as the earlier “constative” is displaced by “locutionary.” Searle adopts the term “illocutionary” and, except in Expression and Meaning, infrequently uses “performative. In Speech Acts, Searle makes clear his dissatisfaction with the latter term: “Austin’s original in” sight into performatives was that some utterances were not sayings, but doings of some other kind. But this point can be exaggerated” (68). It is not sentences that “act, Searle maintains repeatedly, ” but people; language “performs” only to the degree that it is the product of an intentional act (29). 2 In The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, Heidegger says, “It can be shown historically that at bottom all the great philosophies since antiquity more or less explicitly took themselves to be, and as such sought to be, ontology” (12). As for Derrida, the Western tradition is repeatedly characterized in terms of the pervasive influence of a “metaphysics of presence”: “I do not believe that a single counterexample can be found in the entire history of philosophy” (“Signature” 3). COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /58 In this essay, I trace

Journal

Comparative LiteratureDuke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2003

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