An Object that Belongs to No One: Theorizing performativity in relation to trans-. (2nd September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Andersen, Tawny
• Is Part Of: Performance research. Volume 21:Number 5(2016)
• Page Start: 12
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2016-09-02
• Subjects: Performing arts -- Periodicals; 791
• DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2016.1223435
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1352-8165

Abstract

Abstract : In "An Object That Belongs to No One: Theorizing Performativity in Relation to Trans-", Tawny Andersen suggests that the ubiquitous, yet little understood, concept of performativity might best be elucidated in relation to the notion of trans-. Andersen sets the stage by contextualizing performativity within its accompanying cultural turn. Next, she reviews performativity's intellectual history by means of a brief summary of the seminal texts of its major theorists (J.L. Austin, Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler). From here, she moves on to tease out the structural ties between performativity and trans- in order to question how the latter term might contribute to a deeper understanding of the former. In so doing, she advances the following hypotheses: 1) performativity is transdisciplinary ; 2) performativity is not a transcendental signifier; 3) perfomativity is implicated in processes of transposition, transgression and transformation ; 4) performativity transcends the series of dialectical oppositions that define it.