This book demonstrates the presence of literature within speech act
theory and the utility of speech act theory in reading literary
works. Though the founding text of speech act theory, J. L.
Austin's "How to Do Things with Words," repeatedly expels
literature from the domain of felicitous speech acts, literature is
an indispensable presence within Austin's book. It contains many
literary references but also uses as essential tools literary
devices of its own: imaginary stories that serve as examples and
imaginary dialogues that forestall potential objections. "How to Do
Things with Words" is not the triumphant establishment of a fully
elaborated theory of speech acts, but the story of a failure to do
that, the story of what Austin calls a "bogging down."
After an introductory chapter that explores Austin's book in
detail, the two following chapters show how Jacques Derrida and
Paul de Man in different ways challenge Austin's speech act theory
generally and his expulsion of literature specifically. Derrida
shows that literature cannot be expelled from speech acts--rather
that what he calls "iterability" means that any speech act may be
literature. De Man asserts that speech act theory involves a
radical dissociation between the cognitive and positing dimensions
of language, what Austin calls language's "constative" and
"performative" aspects. Both Derrida and de Man elaborate new
speech act theories that form the basis of new notions of
responsible and effective politico-ethical decision and action.
The fourth chapter explores the role of strong emotion in effective
speech acts through a discussion of passages in Derrida,
Wittgenstein, and Austin. The final chapter demonstrates, through
close readings of three passages in Proust, the way speech act
theory can be employed in an illuminating way in the accurate
reading of literary works.
General
Imprint: |
Stanford University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics |
Release date: |
August 2002 |
First published: |
August 2002 |
Authors: |
J.Hillis Miller
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 17mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade / Trade / Trade
|
Pages: |
256 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8047-4216-0 |
Categories: |
Books >
Language & Literature >
Literature: history & criticism >
Literary theory
|
LSN: |
0-8047-4216-2 |
Barcode: |
9780804742160 |
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