PERFORMATIVE NATURE OF SOCIAL REALITY

Abstract

The author uses a performative theory in order to analyze the nature of social reality. In the broadest sense, performance is any sensory-physical practice of everyday life that has the character of a theatrical action or a presentation. Performatives are the types of verbal and non-verbal statements, the implementation of which involves not a description, but the adoption of certain social messages within the audience. Finally, the author interprets performativity as human ability to change (with language) and to organize (in a repetitive way) social reality. The performative turn has theoretical and practical dimensions. The theoretical one involves the development of a systemic performative theory that can be used to analyze various social phenomena. Instead, the practical dimension allows to distinct those social phenomena that have performative nature. In addition, the performative turn is associated with a new understanding of language and linguistic acts, which John Austin coherently and consistently described in his theory. The next stage in the critique of Austin’s speech theory is in the context of Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction. At the same time, Butler’s philosophical project is aimed to overcome the “natural” determinism of gender, extending it to the whole society. Therefore, the performative turn has overcome theoretical methodological and conceptual limits of post-structuralism, proposing to interpret social reality and its phenomena not as a narrative, text or discourse, but as a dynamic performance with its emphasis on intersubjective relations. The ethical dimension of performatives is realized primarily in knowledge and power, thus it involves an agreement between social actors in their everyday activity. As for the aesthetic dimension, it involves specific transformations of social action into a theatrical action, producing unusual and ambiguous interpretations. The social action is performative because it involves a special presentation of sensuality and corporeality that actively transforms social reality. The involvement of human body into a performative action suggests an intersubjective interaction, namely a kind of meeting between two or more bodies in space and time. Such condition is fundamental not only from the social point of view, but also from the nature of performative, which cannot be expressed only in one way. The performative nature of social reality has a predominantly instrumental character, relating to the reproduction of predetermined social roles. In other words, social reality is replaced by its actors, which repeat and reproduce it until it becomes a part of everyday life. At the same time, this repetitive everyday nature of social reality irritates people, provoking to certain unusual actions, which also occur performatively. Such a performative dialectic of social reality is possible for two reasons. First, the subject cannot always act within some established scenarios, and, therefore, requires a kind of performative discharge. In this regard, medieval carnivals, then revolutions and spectacles have always created social «betwixt and between» spaces for a collective activity. Second, the very forms of social reality require a performative reproduction through repetition and rituals, gradually limit and dehumanize subjects, depriving them of freedom, and, as a result, the possibility of selfdetermination. To sum up, social reality can be interpreted and analyzed as a performance, while social agents/actors are forced to reproduce the established norms according to agreed scenario, although they do not always want to do it. As a result, it determinates an authoritative discourse, which also disciplines and punishes subjects in a performative way. Thus, performative determines the existence of social reality in its subjective (sensorybodily) and objective (descriptive-normative) dimensions.