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/lp/edinburgh-university-press/monstrous-promises-performative-acts-and-corporeality-in-mary-shelley-faoKCDTO9g
References (5)
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S. Ruston (2018)
Mary ShelleyWomen's Writing, 25
-
J. Austin (1975)
How to Do Things with Words: The William James Lectures Delivered at Harvard University in 1955 -
S. Friedman, P. Sidney (1987)
CREATIVITY AND THE CHILDBIRTH METAPHOR: GENDER DIFFERENCE IN LITERARY DISCOURSEFeminist Studies, 13
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R. Betterton (2005)
Promising Monsters: Pregnant Bodies, Artistic Subjectivity, and Maternal ImaginationHypatia, 21
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A. Lemma (2010)
Under the Skin : A Psychoanalytic Study of Body Modification
- Publisher
- Edinburgh University Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
- ISSN
- 2044-0138
- eISSN
- 2044-0146
- DOI
- 10.3366/soma.2018.0253
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Promises are an example of what linguist JL Austin described as performative acts, in that their very utterance allows the act of promising to take place. Austin formed his theory of performative speech acts as a way in which to make fully predictable the effects of certain speech acts, promises amongst them.Using Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, this article demonstrates the impossibility of predicting the effects of promises, explaining that Austin and Frankenstein both lack a consideration of the bearing different bodies have on the effects of promises. Taking a feminist deconstructive approach, this article examines the technics of speech and the gaze, the accumulation of knowledge, the status and reproductive abilities of women, and how these relate to monsters and monstrosity in both the novel and Austin's seminal work, How to Do Things With Words.
Journal
Somatechnics – Edinburgh University Press
Published: Sep 1, 2018