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 53
... relationship between Milton and Blake , 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 ' socio- political ...
... Relations in the State of Innocence 132 ' Introduction ' to Experience : The Performative as Institutionalized Utterance 134 Relations in the State of Experience 143 6 Binding the Infinite : Blake's Brief Epics 146 Bounding and Binding ...
... relationship between speaker and hearer , and the grammatical form of the utterance . These criteria are by no means consistent , even in the major formulations of speech - act theory by J.L. Austin and John xiv Prologue.
... relation of the utterance to the world is its ' felicity ' or success in achieving an effect . The power of the utterance to perform an act depends on its being spoken by a qualified individual in appropriate circumstances , so as to ...
... relation between language and the world ; and by Wolfgang Iser , who concludes from a similar analysis of horizontal and vertical con- ventions that fiction reorders the real - world functions of language and uses them to create a ...
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 |