ABSTRACT
The final chapter, “Conclusion: Moving in the Gap,” reflects on the implications of poetic speech for the paradox of constituent power. Forms of speech that Austin excluded from his original theory over problems of sincerity and seriousness turn out to be full of potential when it comes to loosening or reimagining the bonds we craft through speech. Riddles, poetry, and tricksterism use humor and indirection to make an audience aware of the bonds they bear. Poetic indirection and the overgrowth of popular voice look like insincerity from the point of view of conventional speech and look like a deficit in authorization for founding speech. But modes of speech that loosen the grip of language, making it less serious and automatic, may be especially useful in restoring the rich and strange conditions that surround Arendtian beginning. Revisiting the concept of constituent power in light of this understanding suggests ways it can be performative, retroactive, and at least partially legitimate, without being self-sufficient or complete and without submerging constituent power in law.
