Performativity
THE ROLE EVERYDAY PERFORMATIVITY PLAY IN INTERPELLATING US AS RACED, GENDERED, CLASSED, ETHICIZED AND NATIONAL SUBJECTS AND IS THERE ANY WAY THAT WE CAN SUBVERT THE ROLES ASSIGNED BY US BY SOCIETY.
Performativity is one of the difficult terms to define because of its interdisciplinary nature in which it is used. Even though such is the case, it is often used to name the capacity of speech, as a production of the speaking body, as well as other non-verbal forms of expressive action, to perform a type of constructed identity (Felman 1980:68). In this paper everyday performativity will be used in differentiating it from mere performance and establish what role it play in interpellating us as raced, gendered, classed, ethicized and national subjects. To understand Performativity, there is a need to distinguish it with performance which is the term it is mostly confused with because of the thin line difference they have and the repetitive attribute they share in common. On one hand, performances mark identity, bend and remake time and provide people with behavior that is twice-behaved, not for the first time, rehearsed, cooked and prepared (Schechner 1985:564). On the other hand performativity being a term first used by a philosopher named J.L. Austin in 1955 was meant to describe using words to actually accomplish actions. Today a wide range of actions, behaviors and events are thought of as performative. These range from performative writing to various kinds of role playing in everyday to personal identity itself, especially gendered identity (Schechner 1985:565). To simplify performance and performmativity differences is to explain them by example. For example, football is a performance and no one can confuse it with tennis because the characteristics of each performance genre are conventional and have different rules they follow. On the other hand the terms that deal with the performative performance in everyday life and identity constructions are as rule
Performativity is one of the difficult terms to define because of its interdisciplinary nature in which it is used. Even though such is the case, it is often used to name the capacity of speech, as a production of the speaking body, as well as other non-verbal forms of expressive action, to perform a type of constructed identity (Felman 1980:68). In this paper everyday performativity will be used in differentiating it from mere performance and establish what role it play in interpellating us as raced, gendered, classed, ethicized and national subjects. To understand Performativity, there is a need to distinguish it with performance which is the term it is mostly confused with because of the thin line difference they have and the repetitive attribute they share in common. On one hand, performances mark identity, bend and remake time and provide people with behavior that is twice-behaved, not for the first time, rehearsed, cooked and prepared (Schechner 1985:564). On the other hand performativity being a term first used by a philosopher named J.L. Austin in 1955 was meant to describe using words to actually accomplish actions. Today a wide range of actions, behaviors and events are thought of as performative. These range from performative writing to various kinds of role playing in everyday to personal identity itself, especially gendered identity (Schechner 1985:565). To simplify performance and performmativity differences is to explain them by example. For example, football is a performance and no one can confuse it with tennis because the characteristics of each performance genre are conventional and have different rules they follow. On the other hand the terms that deal with the performative performance in everyday life and identity constructions are as rule
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