THEORIES OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE AND MEDIA Speech Act Theory: Austin, Saltz, and Butler, Philosophy, Performance, and Politics

Speech Act Theory J. L. Austin ( ) “People do things with words.” “To say something is to do something.” Illocution: A request Perlocution: Its reception and outcome Illocutionary force: The request must be plausibly sincere Contingency: The request must be able to fail and the success or failure must be do to the request.

Performative Speech is Excluded J. L. Austin It is “hollow” and “Parasitic”. John Searle It is “mere utterance”, pretend, because it is fictional. Michael Issacharoff “The stage is a frame that disengages speech acts.” Performative speech lacks illocutionary force, contingency and illocutionary authority. Actors are not just pretending to be fictional characters, they are pretending to speak.

The Reality of Doing David Z. Saltz If Austin and Co. are correct, any Stanislavski based acting method “is founded on a logical fallacy or delusion”. “It is one thing to say that an actor does something on stage, it is quite another to say that their character does something on stage, one clearly takes place in the real world and one does not.” Illocution, perlocution, illocutionary force, and even contingency are possible using S.A.T. Illocutionary authority is accomplished via game theory

The Game Model of Dramatic Action “I am positing a game model of dramatic action, wherein actors do not merely imitate actions as they would be performed off stage but really do commit illocutionary actions within the theatrical context. These acts function just like illocutionary acts in any other context, with one exception: Their conditions of satisfaction are determined with respect to borrowed intentional states, specifically game intentionality.” David Z. Saltz The conventions and given circumstances are the rules of the game.

The Political Promise of the Performative Judith Butler The performative has the potential to turn power on itself creating new possibilities. The performative authorizes itself. Rosa Parks