Talk:Performativity

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The term performativity goes back to J.L. Austin. It was reinterpreted within the discourse by people like Derrida, Habermas and others. J. Butler´s definition of this term is only one possible reading. It would be good to write a more comprehensive article on this term, since it is a very wideranging one within the field of cultural studies. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.174.41.129 (talk) 13:58, 9 November, 2006 (UTC)

Someone erased a previous version that was actually mentioning Austin. Contributions are welcome, but unjustified, proto-vandalist removals are questionable. I'll retrieve material from earleir version here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Performativity&diff=81241788&oldid=81004649 -- Typewritten 23:40, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reverting

Actually, reverting to earlier version. Further contributors (esp. 68.49.243.231), please add to earlier work and/or justify and discuss your main edits. Performativity is a quite dense concept and has been used by many scholars -- not anyone's monopoly though. -- Typewritten 23:47, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree with 84.174.41.129 on the need for a more comprehensibe article. References to Butler where there in the earlier version (to her book, not to a reader), now retrieved. More elements about Butler can be picked and pasted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Performativity&oldid=87353005 -- Typewritten 23:56, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I think the statement "Butler sees gender not as an expression of what one is, rather as something that one does. In other words, subjects can decide what kind of gender they want to be" is not entirely right. I don't think this is what performativity points to - the statement relies on the notion of a pre-discursive subject who can freely choose their gender. Butler, I think, specifically refutes this idea - & Bodies That Matter concerns itself with correcting this 'mis-reading'. Gender, like sex, can instead be seen as an effect of discourse that both precedes and exceeds the subject. Butler doesn't entirely do away with the notion of agency, but here her thinking becomes quite dense and more difficult, I think.

... I agree - Butler cautions that one should not see performativity as a willful and arbitrary act of putting on gender ... (Bodies that Matter - p. 187)

[edit] Butler and others

I added a section on Butler and pasted there all content from pre-revert version. Other sections should be added, especially on Performativity in semiotics and linguistics (this section to point to the performative utterance entry ), Performativity in science and technology studies, another on Derrida, another on Deleuze, etc. -- Typewritten 16:35, 18 November 2006 (UTC)