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 35
... for philosophers ' difficulties in analysing certain kinds of sentences according to the logic of true - false propositions by isolating a category he called the performative . Rather than describing reality in a way that.
... according to which an illocutionary act is defined in part by the speaker's intention to perform that illocutionary act . on seriousness seems to contradict his preliminary claim that performative Performative Language and Visionary Poetry ...
... according to Wittgensteinian principles ) and poetry ( recast according to Mallarméan example ) are fundamentally ethical activities . Central to his argument is the demonstration that Mallarmé's poetry moves from historical ...
... according to Levin , ' I imagine myself in and invite you to conceive a world in which ... , ' a formula that we may infer as the preamble to any work of imaginative literature ( 150 ) . This form of read- ing ( as I have suggested is ...
... ( according to which it would be a simple tautology ) ; more- over , the illocutionary force is likely to vary depending on whether the speaker is a man or a woman , a judge or a stand - up comedian . As Petrey writes , all Austinian ...
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 |
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Creating States: Studies in the Performative Language of John Milton and ... Angela Esterhammer No preview available - 1994 |