Haptic performativity: exploring the force of bodies and the limits of linguistic action in silent protests

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dc.contributor.authorLavender, Luke
dc.contributor.supervisorGlezos, Simon
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-25T16:38:45Z
dc.date.available2022-04-25T16:38:45Z
dc.date.copyright2022en_US
dc.date.issued2022-04-25
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Political Science
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis 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.en_US
dc.description.scholarlevelGraduateen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/13870
dc.languageEnglisheng
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.subjectperformativityen_US
dc.subjectperforamtiveen_US
dc.subjecthapticen_US
dc.subjectbodyen_US
dc.subjectspeechen_US
dc.subjectdeliberationen_US
dc.subjectdialogueen_US
dc.subjectsilent protesten_US
dc.subjectsilenceen_US
dc.subjectdeedsen_US
dc.subjectactionsen_US
dc.subjectJean Luc Nancyen_US
dc.subjectButleren_US
dc.subjectcorporealityen_US
dc.subjectfleshen_US
dc.titleHaptic performativity: exploring the force of bodies and the limits of linguistic action in silent protestsen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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