Touching Feeling

Title of Source: Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity

Author: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Source Type: Essay Collection

Publication: Duke Univeristy Pres, 2003

MLA Citation: Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Duke University Press, 2003.

Notes:

Sedgwick begins by reflecting on the image on the cover of the book, which shows an artist and her sculpture. While the essays in this collection were initially published in different contexts, they all highlight the ways in which queer theory benefits from theories of performativity. Segwick wishes for us to apply a spatial analysis to concepts usually thought of merely in terms of temporality. In the first essay she explores the way “shame” helps us understand Henry James. In the second chapter she deals directly with the work of J. L. Austin and discusses content on the periphery of performative, the “periperformative.” Sedgwick explains that this is the issue of what is unspoken. An example of the perforative vs the Periperfomatives is “I dare you” as opposed to “I wish I had dared you.” In the third chapter, Sedgwick continues to express shame in the work of Silvan Tomkins. The 4th chapter deals with paranoia and suspicion.