Creating States: Studies in the Performative Language of John Milton and William BlakeUniversity of Toronto Press, 15 դեկ, 1994 թ. - 245 էջ Although the concept of the performative has influenced literary theory in numerous ways, this book represents one of the first full-length studies of performative language in literary texts. Creating States examines the visionary poetry of John Milton and William Blake, using a critical approach based on principles of speech-act theory as articulated by J.L. Austin, John Searle, and Emile Benveniste. Angela Esterhammer proposes a new way of understanding the relationship between these two poets, while at the same time evaluating the role of speech-act philosophy in the reading of visionary poetry and Romantic literature. Esterhammer distinguishes between the 'sociopolitical performative,' the speech act which is defined by a societal context and derives power from institutional authority, and the `phenomenological performative,' language which is invested with the power to posit or create because of the individual will and consciousness of the speaker. Analysing texts such as The Reason of Church-Government, Paradise Lost, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and Jerusalem, Esterhammer traces the parallel evolution of Milton and Blake from writers of political and anti-prelatical tracts to poets who, having failed in their attempts to alter historical circumstances through a direct address to their contemporaries, reaffirm their faith in individual visionary consciousness and the creative word – while continuing to use the forms of a socially or politically performative language. |
From inside the book
Արդյունքներ 48–ի 1-ից 5-ը:
... speak from and in a socially constituted position , ' a position that is constantly shifting ( ' Ideol- ogy ' 62-3 ) . Stanley Fish , finally , stresses the significance but also the inde- terminateness of context , arguing that we have ...
... speaking voice . This second type of speech - act reading analyses the way the literary utterance both depends on , and constructs , the authority of the speaker or poet . 2 See , for example , recent work by Henry Staten , who builds ...
... prophetic ) authority to the speaking voice and elicit the reader's or hearer's assent . This type of utterance , and the corresponding interpretive approach , is here called the phenomenological performative , since 12 Creating States.
... speaking and acting are inseparable , which invokes generic conven- tions as well as the behavioural conventions of the society it portrays , and which takes place in a public context , drama has proven a valuable illustra- tion of the ...
... speak ' for a man's formal declara- tion of love and proposal of marriage . The performative power of declarations in a society where the power structure is so extensively determined by marital alliances and lines of inheritance is ...
Բովանդակություն
10 | |
16 | |
23 | |
31 | |
42 | |
48 | |
The J Myth | 54 |
3 | 65 |
5 | 119 |
Relations in the State of Innocence | 132 |
Relations in the State of Experience | 143 |
Naming in The Book of Urizen | 152 |
The Argument of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell | 158 |
A Song of Liberty | 167 |
Statements and States | 174 |
A Revision | 184 |
General and Special Inspiration | 70 |
Miltons Promise | 77 |
The Elision of the Performative | 85 |
The Performativity of Divine Speech | 99 |
Naming and Subjectivity | 110 |
A Division | 191 |
Creating States | 201 |
The Community of Phrases | 216 |
Index | 239 |