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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... names in a unique way the performative dimension of its central text. In the Bible, Logos is the divine force which creates the world, the incarnate force which fulfils the role of hero in Prologue: Words, Worlds, Acts, and Visions.
... names in a unique way the performative dimension of its central text . In the Bible , Logos is the divine force which creates the world , the incar- nate force which fulfils the role of hero in that world , the inspirational force which ...
... name of a person , nor " here " of a place , and " this " is not a name , ' Wittgenstein writes ; ' it is characteristic of physics not to use these words ' ( $ 410 ) . Deictics are only for discourses which can stand the intrusion of ...
... Name of their Emanations they are named Jerusalem . ' Both the prefaces and the conclusion of the poem raise the issue of Blake's authority to bestow names and make declarations , and since the last word of the text is also its title ...
... name ' Marion ' effectively fulfils the performa- tive function of excusing Rousseau precisely because ' Marion ' lacks any cognitive or constative meaning . But de Man's key point , that ' performative rhetoric and cognitive rhetoric ...
Contents
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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 |