For Wednesday, be sure to read Ch.7 of Culler (the penultimate chapter we'll read of this book) and prepare for an in-class response. This chapter is a bit tricky, so here are some ideas to consider to help you prepare:
* What is the basic difference between a constative and performative utterance? Under what circumstances can a constative become a performative?
* What does Culler mean when he writes, "The literary utterance too creates the state of affairs to which it refers" (96)? Related to this, why might we argue that people didn't fall in love until they read about it in books? (certainly, people have always been in love, but consider what fall in love means, with all its many connotations, in Western culture).
* How can we argue that literature is not just an act but an event? You might consider why revolutionary movements always have "literature" that they pass out to gain followers.
* What does Culler mean by the terms "felicitious" and "infelictious" as it refers to literature? How can a poem be "infelicitious"--what 'crimes' could it commit, do you think?
* Why is repetition such an important part of language? Can we say anything that isn't somehow an echo of something said before, or a citation of another writing or utterance? (how is even this question, and this blog post, a kind of repetition?)
* What does Butler mean by gender being primarily a performance? How can you perform being male or female? Isn't being male or female a constative statement, such as when a doctor says "you're having a boy"?
* Related to this, how can performative language help define terms like masculinity or femininity? (you might refer to the comic book ad of Charles Atlas above).
* How is calling someone a "fag!" or a "queer!" a performance that operates through a kind of cultural repetition? How does this help to prove Butler's theory of gender as a performance--and a fluid identity?
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