ABSTRACT
The term “performative” was coined by John L. Austin. He introduced it to language philosophy in his lecture series entitled “How to do things with words,” held at Harvard University in 1955. The coinage of this term coincided with the period I have identified as the performative turn in the arts. While Austin initially used the term “performatory,” he ultimately decided in favor of “performative,” which is “shorter, less ugly, more tractable, and more traditional in formation” (1963: 6). One year later, he wrote an essay entitled “Performative Utterances” in which he elaborated on his choice: “You are more than entitled not to know what the word ‘performative’ means. It is a new word and an ugly word, and perhaps it does not mean anything very much. But at any rate there is one thing in its favor, it is not a profound word” (1970: 233).
