Creating States: Studies in the Performative Language of John Milton and William BlakeAlthough 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
Results 1-5 of 31
... Innocence and of Experience 119 Perspectives on Blake's Vision 119 ' Introduction ' to Innocence : The Performative as Self - Expression 124 Relations in the State of Innocence 132 ' Introduction ' to Experience : The Performative as ...
... Innocence and of Experience, and chapter 6 examines an analogous conflict between poetic utterance and the restrictiveness of the sociopolitical performative in The Book of Urizen and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The final chapter ...
... Innocence and of Experience by two critics who have little in common apart from their mutual reliance on the terms of speech - act the- ory : Gavin Edwards , whose analysis of performative language in ' London ' leads to a ...
... Innocence- side by side with a non - fictional passage . His conclusion is that if we as readers are to render the poem a totally successful speech act , we must accede to its intended perlocution- ary effect by suspending our disbelief ...
... Innocence and of Experi- ence , which contain a dark suspicion of the insidiousness of institutionally authorized language , to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , which begins to articulate the different ways language can claim authority ...
Contents
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 |
Other editions - View all
Creating States: Studies in the Performative Language of John Milton and ... Angela Esterhammer No preview available - 1994 |