How to Do Things While Saying Nothing: Illocutionary Dissimulation in Milkman.

  • Published In: ELH, 2024, v. 91, n. 4. P. 1139 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Barry, Annabel 3 of 3

Abstract

Rae Langton and Jennifer Hornsby apply J.L. Austin to understand women's systemic disempowerment from performing ordinary speech acts. They argue that speakers are silenced on an illocutionary level when their intended speech acts go unrecognized, yet some speakers counterintuitively exert power by camouflaging their intentions. This phenomenon, which I call illocutionary dissimulation, is both illustrated in the plot of Anna Burns's Milkman and theorized through the novel's style. Milkman reveals a previously unrecognized linguistic subterfuge that prevails in constrained communicative landscapes like 1970s Northern Ireland and formally models how disparate feminist accounts of language might unite to redress linguistic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:ELH. 2024/12, Vol. 91, Issue 4, p1139
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:0013-8304
  • DOI:10.1353/elh.2024.a945316
  • Accession Number:181275350
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of ELH is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Looking to go deeper into this topic? Look for more articles on EBSCOhost.