Creating States: Studies in the Performative Language of John Milton and William Blake Contributor(s): Esterhammer, Angela (Author) |
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ISBN: 1442614943 ISBN-13: 9781442614949 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $37.95 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 1994 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Poetry | European - English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Pragmatics |
Dewey: 821.009 |
Series: Heritage |
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6" W x 9" (0.86 lbs) 245 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Although 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Esterhammer, Angela: - Angela Esterhammer is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Zurich, and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Western Ontario. |