performativity
“for John Langshaw Austin a performative refers to a particular class of speech. An utterance is performative when it does what it says: “the issuing of the utterance is the performing of an action” (1975)”
“the non-performative does not “fail to act” because of conditions that are external to the speech act: rather, it “works” because it fails to bring about what it names”
“to track what texts do, we need to follow them around. If texts circulate as documents or objects within public culture, then our task is to follow them, to see how they move as well as how they get stuck. So rather than just looking at university documentation on diversity for what it says, although I do this, as close readings are important and necessary, I also ask what they do, in part by talking to practitioners who use these documents to support their actions.”
Resources
Section titled “Resources”- The Nonperformativity of Antiracism by Sara Ahmed