Performativity and the Child Who May Not be a Child

Abstract

In lieu of abstract, here is the first paragraph of the article: Performativity, one of the most recent buzz words in literary studies, is a concept with complex origins, going back at least half a century. Some of the elements discussed under its rubric originate in the domain of theatre performance studies, while others are drawn from fields as diverse as anthropology, sociology, folklore, and cultural studies. An often free interchange between the terms performance and performativity is sustained by the simple fact that the verb to perform serves both nouns, so that while we can say that someone ‘performs Shakespeare’s Juliet’ or ‘performs femininity’, it is easy to overlook that the verb is being used in quite different senses. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that one of the most prominent theorists of performativity over the past fifteen years, Judith Butler, declared early on in her use of the term that performativity ‘consists in a reiteration of norms which precede, constrain, and exceed the performer and in that sense cannot be taken as the fabrication of the performer’s “will” or “choice” .... The reduction of performativity to performance would be a mistake’ (Butler 1993, p.234).