This thesis engages with the tension between political action and political speech in political understanding. This tension arises in a context whereby speech is represented as the sine qua non of being political and the way to change the conditions of being political; specifically, this thesis explores this tendency within a linguistic account of performative action (where action is understood through/as language effects). Against this backdrop, the thesis develops a notion of haptic performativity—performative action where the action (or doing) occurs without or in spite of linguistic (de)legitimation. Here, haptic performativity begins answering how marginalised populations act politically when defined by a lack of voice. To develop this notion—centering forms of action that occur in absentia of linguistic legitimation—the thesis: 1) reveals the disjunctive relation between deeds and speech with linguistic Performative Speech Act (PSA) theory; argues that 2) PSA theory reveals the inability for speech to convey the full force of bodily deeds within/through language; and, thereby, explores 3) how bodies or actors defined by a lack of social standing (or linguistic efficiency as a subject) remain politically impactful. Thus, while linguistic performativity gestures to the assembling power of speech (the power of already assembled subjects), conversely, haptic performativity testifies to the disassembling force of bodies who revolt without speech (the force of actors who are yet to be subjects). The thesis ends by bringing this haptic perspective into a contemporary context: the place of the body in the Black radical tradition of thought and the force of silent protests in the Black Lives Matter Movement. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/13870 |
| Date | 25 April 2022 |
| Creators | Lavender, Luke |
| Contributors | Glezos, Simon |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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