The Language of Atoms: Performativity and Politics in Lucretius' De rerum natura
W. H. Shearin
Abstract
The Language of Atoms argues that ancient Epicurean writing on language offers a theory of performative language. Such a theory describes how languages acts, providing psychic therapy or creating new verbal meanings, rather than passively describing the nature of the universe. This observation allows us new insight into how Lucretius, our primary surviving Epicurean author, uses language in his great poem, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). The bulk of the book then studies Lucretius’ work in the light of performative language, looking at promising, acts of naming, and the larger polit ... More
Keywords: Lucretius, De rerum natura, Epicureanism, atomism, performativity, promising, naming, politics of literature
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 | Print ISBN-13: 9780190202422 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2014 | DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190202422.001.0001 |
