ISBN-13: 9780813936970 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 148 str.
ISBN-13: 9780813936970 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 148 str.
In Performatively Speaking, Debra Rosenthal draws on speech act theory to open up the current critical conversation about antebellum American fiction and culture and to explore what happens when writers use words not just to represent action but to constitute action itself. Examining moments of discursive action in a range of canonical and noncanonical works--T. S. Arthur's temperance tales, Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick--she shows how words act when writers no longer hold to a difference between writing and doing. The author investigates, for example, the voluntary self-binding nature of a promise, the formulaic but transformative temperance pledge, the power of Ruth Hall's signature or name on legal documents, the punitive hate speech of Hester Prynne's scarlet letter A, the prohibitory vodun hex of Simon Legree's slave Cassy, and Captain Ahab's injurious insults to second mate Stubb. Through her comparative methodology and historicist and feminist readings, Rosenthal asks readers to rethink the ways that speech and action intersect.
In Performatively Speaking, Debra Rosenthal draws on speech act theory to open up the current critical conversation about antebellum American fiction and culture and to explore what happens when writers use words not just to represent action but to constitute action itself. Examining moments of discursive action in a range of canonical and noncanonical works-T. S. Arthurs temperance tales, Fanny Ferns Ruth Hall, Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin, and Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick-she shows how words act when writers no longer hold to a difference between writing and doing.The author investigates, for example, the voluntary self-binding nature of a promise, the formulaic but transformative temperance pledge, the power of Ruth Halls signature or name on legal documents, the punitive hate speech of Hester Prynnes scarlet letter A, the prohibitory vodun hex of Simon Legrees slave Cassy, and Captain Ahabs injurious insults to second mate Stubb. Through her comparative methodology and historicist and feminist readings, Rosenthal asks readers to rethink the ways that speech and action intersect.