What is performativity? In this paper I set out to encounter this question by intimating the directions we are forced to consider when thinking through the performative. In centring my arguments within the corpus of Deleuze's philosophy of difference I advocate academic production as creative of thought. This is to suggest a performative thinking and doing that unfolds our way of looking at our social, corporeal, human dramas and the technologies by which we feel able to analyse something, and in so doing, enact its constitution. Coursing underneath this issue of performativity is the problematisation of the term of the subject—what if the event was more important? What do we understand of the event if not through a sense of subjectivity? Insinuated within the confrontation with performativity are fundamental implications associated with the timing of something as it happens, the centrality of the material and visceral body to this, and the settings through which events take place. Arguing through this triality I extract three symptomatic themes of performativity: that it speaks of irretrievability, indeterminacy, and excess. Ethically, and in conclusion, emphasis is placed on the empiricism of life in its doing—the present moment of immediate uncertain happening as we are continually enacted out of ‘knowing’ how to go on within concrete, material circumstances.
BoundasC, 1996, “Deleuze-Bergson: an ontology of the virtual”, in Deleuze: A Critical Reader Ed. PattonP (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 81–106
10.
BraidottiR, 1991Patterns of DissonancePolity Press, Cambridge)
11.
BraidottiR, 1994Nomadic SubjectsColumbia University Press, New York)
12.
BrehierE, 1928La Theorie des incorporels dans l'ancien stoicismeVrin, Paris)
13.
BrusseauJ, 1998Isolated Experiences: Gilles Deleuze and the Solitudes of Reversed PlatonismSUNY Press, New York)
14.
BuchananI, 1997, “Deleuze and culture studies”The South Atlantic Quarterly96483–497
15.
ButlerJ, 1997Excitable Speech: A Politics of the PerformativeRoutledge, London)
16.
ConleyT, 1993, “Translator's forward: a plea for Leibniz”, in The Fold: Leibniz and the BaroquetDeleuzeG (Athlone Press, London) pp ix–xx
17.
CrawfordT HLatourB, 1993, “An interview with Bruno Latour”Configurations2247–269
18.
CrockerS, 1998, “Prolepsis: on speed and time's interval”Cultural Values2485–498
19.
CrossleyN, 1996, “Merleau-Ponty, the elusive body and carnal sociology”Body and Society1 (1)43–63
20.
De LandaM, 1998A Thousand Years of Nonlinear HistoryMIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
21.
DeleuzeG, 1983Nietzsche and Philosophy translated by TomlinsonH (Athlone Press, London)
22.
DeleuzeG, 1988aSpinoza: Practical Philosophy translated by HurleyR (City Light Books, San Francisco, CA)
23.
DeleuzeG, 1988bFoucault translated by HandS (The Athlone Press, London)
24.
DeleuzeG, 1989Cinema 2: The Time-image translated by TomlinsonHGaletaR (Athlone Press, London)
25.
DeleuzeG, 1990The Logic of Sense translated by LesterM with StivaleC (Athlone Press, London)
26.
DeleuzeG, 1991aBergsonism translated by TomlinsonHHabberjamB (Zone Books, New York)
27.
DeleuzeG, 1991bEmpiricism and Subjectivity translated by BoundasC (Columbia University Press, New York)
28.
DeleuzeG, 1993The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque translated by ConleyT (Athlone Press, London)
29.
DeleuzeG, 1994aDifference and Repetition translated by PattonP (Athlone Press, London)
30.
DeleuzeG, 1994b, “He stuttered”, in Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy Eds BoundasCOlkowskiD (Routledge, London) pp 23–29
31.
DeleuzeG, 1995Negotiations translated by JoughinM (Columbia University Press, New York)
32.
DeleuzeG, 1997, “Immanence: a life…”Theory, Culture and Society14(2) 3–7
33.
DeleuzeG, 1998Critical and Clinical translated by SmithD W (Verso, London)
34.
DeleuzeG, 2000, “Bergson's conception of difference”, in The New Bergson Ed. MullarkeyJ (University of Manchester Press, Manchester) pp 42–65
35.
DeleuzeGGuattariF, 1984Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia translated by HurleyRSeemMLaneH (Athlone Press, London)
36.
DeleuzeGGuattariF, 1988A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia translated by MassumiB (Athlone Press, London)
37.
DeleuzeGGuattariF, 1994What is Philosophy? translated by TomlinsonHBurchellG (Verso, London)
38.
DeleuzeGParnetC, 1987Dialogues translated by TomlinsonHHabberjamB (Athlone Press, London)
39.
DerridaJ, 1976Of Grammatology translated by SpivakG C (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD)
40.
DobrezL, 1985The Existential and its Exits: Literary and Philosophical Perspectives in the Works Of Beckett, Ionesco, Genet and PinterAthlone Press, London)
41.
DoelM, 1996, “A hundred thousand lines of flight: a machinic introduction to the nomad thought and scrumpled geography of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space14421–439
42.
EsslinM, 1992Pinter: The PlaywrightMetheun, London)
43.
FoucaultM, 1977, “History of systems of thought”, reprinted in Language, Counter-memory, Practice; Selected Interviews and Essays Ed. BouchardD F (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY) pp 199–204
44.
FraynM, 1998CopenhagenMethuen, London)
45.
FraynM, 1999, Interview “The next stage”The Times Magazine 23 January, page 35
46.
GarfinkelH, 1984Studies in EthnomethodologyBasil Blackwell, Oxford)
47.
GarnerS, 1994Bodied Spaces: Phenomenology and Performance in Contemporary DramaCornell University Press, Ithaca, NY)
48.
GatensM, 1996aImaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and CorporealityRoutledge, London)
49.
GatensM, 1996b, “Through a Spinozist lens: ethology, difference, power”, in Deleuze: A Critical Reader Ed. PattonP (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 162–187
50.
GibsonA, 1996Towards a Postmodern Theory of NarrativeEdinburgh University Press, Edinburgh)
51.
GoodchildP, 1996Deleuze and Guattari: An Introduction to the Politics of DesireSage, London)
52.
GoodchildP, 1997, “Deleuzian ethics”Theory, Culture and Society14 (2) 39–50
53.
GrossbergL, 1996, “Identity and cultural studies: is that all there is?”, in Questions of Cultural Identity Eds HallSdu GayP (Sage, London) pp 87–107
54.
GroszE, 1994a, “A thousand tiny sexes: feminism and rhizomatics”, in Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy Eds BoundasCOlkowskiD (Routledge, London) pp 187–210
55.
GroszE, 1994bVolatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal FeminismIndiana University Press, Bloomington, IN)
56.
GroszE, 1995Space, Time, and PerversionRoutledge, London)
57.
GuattariF, 1995Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm translated by BainsPPefanisJ (Power Publications, Sydney)
58.
GuattariF, 1997, “Felix Guattari: space and corporeality”Columbia Documents of Architecture and Theory2139–148
59.
HarawayD, 1991Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of NatureFree Association Books, London)
60.
HarawayD, 1997Modest Witness@Second Millenium_Femaleman meets OncomouseRoutledge, New York)
61.
HardtM, 1993Gilles Deleuze: An Apprenticeship in PhilosophyUCL Press, London)
62.
HaydenP, 1995, “From relations to practice in the empiricism of Gilles Deleuze”Man and World: An International Philosophical Review28283–302
63.
HollierD, 1992, “The use-value of the impossible”October601–25
64.
HolzmanLNewmanF, 1997The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of LearningRoutledge, London)
65.
HumphreyCLaidlawJ, 1994The Archetypal Actions of RitualClarendon Press, Oxford)
66.
KaplanC, 1993, “Deterritorializations: the rewriting of home and exile in Western feminist discourse”Cultural Critique6187–198
67.
KermodeF, 1966The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of FictionOxford University Press, Oxford)
68.
KirbyV, 1998Telling FleshRoutledge, London)
69.
KunderaM, 1995SlownessFaber and Faber, London)
70.
LatourB, 1997, “Trains of thought: Piaget, formalism, and the fifth dimension”Common Knowledge6 (3) 170–191
LingisA, 1994, “The society of dismembered body parts”, in Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy Eds BoundasCOlkowskiD (Routledge, London) pp 289–303
73.
LynchM, 1997Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social Studies of ScienceCambridge University Press, Cambridge)
74.
LynnG, 1993, “Body matters”, in The Body Ed. BenjaminA (Academy Editions, London) pp 61–69
75.
MacKenzieI, 1997, “Creativity as criticism: the philosophical constructivism of Deleuze and Guattari”Radical Philosophy86 (November/December) 7–18
76.
McNayL, 1996, “Bodies in transition”Radical Philosophy78 (July/August) 34–39
77.
MarksJ, 1998Gilles Deleuze: Vitalism and MultiplicityPluto Press, London)
78.
MassumiB, 1992A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and GuattariMIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
79.
MassumiB, 1996, “The autonomy of affect”, in Deleuze: A Critical Reader Ed. PattonP (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 217–239
80.
MassumiB, 1997, “Which came first? The individual or society? Which is the chicken and which is the egg?: the political economy of belonging and the logic of relation”, in Anybody Ed. DavidsonC (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA) pp 174–189
81.
MayT, 1994, “Difference and unity in Gilles Deleuze”, in Gilles Deleuze and the Theater of Philosophy Eds BoundasCOlkowskiD (Routledge, London) pp 33–47
82.
MayT, 1996, “Gilles Deleuze and the politics of time”Man and World: an International Philosophical Review29 (3) 293–304
83.
Merleau-PontyM, 1962Phenomenology of Perception translated by SmithC (Routledge, London)
84.
Merleau-PontyM, 1964, “Cezanne's doubt”, in Sense and Non-sense translated by DreyfusHDreyfusP A (Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL) pp 9–25
85.
MilletN, 1993, “The fugitive body: Bacon's fistula”, in The Body Ed. BenjaminA (Academy Editions, London) pp 61–69
86.
MorsonG, 1994Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of TimeYale University Press, New Haven, CT)
87.
NorrisC, 1987DerridaFontana Press, London)
88.
O'TooleR, 1997, “Contagium vivum philosophia: schizophrenic philosophy, viral empricism and Deleuze”, in Deleuze and Philosophy: The Difference Engineer Ed. Ansell-PearsonK (Routledge, London) pp 163–179
89.
PerloffE, 1996Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the OrdinaryUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL)
RabinowP, 1996Essays on the Anthropology of ReasonPrinceton University Press, Princeton, NJ)
93.
RabinowP, 1997, “Introduction: the history of systems of thought”, in Michel Foucault: Ethics—the Essential Works Ed. RabinowP (Allen Lane, London) pp xi–xlv
94.
RadleyA, 1995, “The elusory body and social constructionist theory”Body and Society1 (2) 3–23
RostasS, 1998, “From ritualization to performativity: the Concheros of Mexico”, in Ritual, Performance, Media Ed. Hughes-FreelandF (Routledge, London) pp 85–103
98.
SchechnerR, 1985Between Theater and AnthropologyUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA)
SmithD W, 1998, “‘A life of pure immanence’: Deleuze's ‘critique et clinique’ project”, in Critical and ClincialDeleuzeG, translated by SmithD W (Verso, London) pp xi–liii
TaussigM, 1993Mimesis and AlterityRoutledge, London)
106.
ThriftN J, 1994, “Inhuman geographies: landscape of speed, light and power”, in Writing the Rural: Five Cultural Geographies Eds ClokePDoelMMatlessDPhillipsMThriftN (Routledge, London) pp 191–248
107.
WeinrichULabovWHerzogH, 1968, “Empirical foundations for a theory of language”, in Directions for Historical Linguistics Eds LehmannW PMalkielY (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX)
