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 83
... inspiration or an experience of expanded perception, asking the reader to accept their utterance as emanating from a transcendent authority either external or internal to the self. Their language, in presenting itself as inspired or ...
... Inspiration in Milton's Prose 65 Milton's Word : Theology and Logology 65 ' General ' and ' Special ' Inspiration 70 Self.
... Inspiration 70 Self - Presentation in The Reason of Church - Government 74 Milton's Promise 77 Legal Contract and Ecclesiastical Oath 81 The Elision of the Performative 85 4 Paradise Lost : The Creation of Poetry and the Poetry of ...
... inspired writer in the prose works, which ironically employ the discourse of law and economics; secondly, the model of divinely creative language in the invocations and the account of creation in Paradise Lost, a model which is more ...
... inspiration or an experience of expanded perception , asking the reader to accept their utterance as emanating from a transcendent authority either external or internal to the self . Their language , in presenting itself as inspired or ...
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 |