Speech Acts in Literature

Release on by Joseph Hillis Miller
Speech Acts in Literature

Author: Joseph Hillis Miller

Publisher: Stanford University Press

ISBN: 9780804742160

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 238

View: 696

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.
Literary Criticism
Acts of Literature
Language: en
Pages: 472

Acts of Literature

Authors: Jacques Derrida
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-09-25 - Publisher: Routledge

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Classified bibliography of literature on the Acts of the Apostles
Language: en
Pages: 532

Classified bibliography of literature on the Acts of the Apostles

Authors: Mattill
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-07-01 - Publisher: BRILL

Books about Classified bibliography of literature on the Acts of the Apostles
A classified bibliography of literature on the Acts of the Apostles
Language: nl
Pages: 513

A classified bibliography of literature on the Acts of the Apostles

Authors: Mattill
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 1966 - Publisher:

Books about A classified bibliography of literature on the Acts of the Apostles
After Derrida
Language: en
Pages:

After Derrida

Authors: Jean-Michel Rabaté
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-05-31 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

This collection of essays explores the main concepts and methods of reading launched by French philosopher Jacques Derrida who died in 2004. Derrida exerted a huge influence on literary critics in the 1980s, but later there was a backlash against his theories. Today, one witnesses a general return to his
Murder & Other Acts of Literature
Language: en
Pages: 345

Murder & Other Acts of Literature

Authors: Michele B. Slung
Categories: Detective and mystery stories
Type: BOOK - Published: 1999 - Publisher:

Books about Murder & Other Acts of Literature