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 41
... distinction between them that can help to uncover the functioning of language in the visionary text . The chapter concludes by outlining a number of philosophical and linguistic models which allow for the intersection of the ...
... distinction between the locutionary or grammatical dimension of an utterance and its illocutionary role within a scene of discourse . Thus the assertion ' I wish you wouldn't leave ' can , in appropriate circumstances , function not as ...
... distinction highlights precisely the significance of parole , because it demands that con- texts be investigated even further . Situating an utterance in a non - standard context reveals the assumptions we make about the authority ...
... distinction at the end of ' With the Compliments of the Author ' ( 720-1 ) ; see also chapter 3 of Speech Acts and Literary Theory , where Sandy Petrey out- lines and distinguishes some important speech - act theories using similar ...
... distinctions is evident throughout Mary Louise Pratt's Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse , which adapts Searle's notion of rules or appropriateness conditions governing verbal behaviour and , more specifically , H.P. ...
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 |