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
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... examples of when and how speech can be an act . In what follows , I attempt to develop a speech - act approach which addresses the distinctiveness of visionary language , and which can there- fore make possible a more rigorous study of ...
... examples of the perfor- mative , chosen because the ability of words to affect rather than merely describe the world is clearest in these cases , are instances in which the speaker's qualifications are established by a political or ...
... example is ' France is hexagonal ' - cannot be judged true or false without reference to circumstances ( was the statement made by a top - ranking general or by a geographer ? ) , and that the better category of judgment may be the ...
... example , be in a peculiar way hollow or void if said by an actor on the stage , or if introduced in a poem , or spoken in soliloquy ... Language in such circumstances is in special ways - intelligibly - used not seri- ously , but in ...
... example , recent work by Henry Staten , who builds on the philosophy of Hilary Putnam and Saul Kripke ; Thomas G. Pavel , who provides connections between speech- act theory , world - making , and fictionality ; and Mario J. Valdés ...
Contents
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31 | |
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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 |