Corpus Illocutus: Body Language and Gestures as Speech Acts

Neither the main protagonists of the ‘pragmatic turn’, Austin and Searle, nor their immediate philosophical predecessors (e.g. Wittgenstein) or the prominent theoretical approaches that followed in their wake (e.g. Louis Althusser’s concept of interpellation or even Judith Butler’s critical analysis of hate speech) have duly recognized the importance of the body in the performance of speech acts. While the role of “body language” is, in some cases, analyzed in parallel with performative speech, hardly any theories account for it as an integral part of a speech act. Be it ritualized acts like the christening of a child or everyday acts such as formal introductions: specific body movements are inextricably intertwined with speech in constructing and performing meaning.

Returning to Walter Benjamin’s notion of the Gestus as the ideal expression of the dialectic of mimesis and semiosis as well as current theories of body language and performance, I will provide a re-evaluation of speech act theory which accounts for this integral role of the body, focusing especially on the subversive potential of corporeal speech acts.