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Christening the Constantive: Infelicity in Shakespeare's Sonnets.

  • Published In: Philosophy & Literature, 2024, v. 48, n. 2. P. 381 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Lamb, Julian 3 of 3

Abstract

When the speaker in Shakespeare's sonnets swears that his dark lady is fair, against what is self-evidently true, what sort of speech act is he performing? Though this is an act of swearing, and thus what J. L. Austin would call a "performative," his swearing also describes, or "constates" something about the dark lady, albeit falsely. In this article, I identify a form of speech act that both performs and constates, and which has performative force only because its description is dubious, or untrue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Philosophy & Literature. 2024/10, Vol. 48, Issue 2, p381
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:0190-0013
  • DOI:10.1353/phl.2024.a950965
  • Accession Number:182990572
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Philosophy & Literature 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.)

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