Performatising the knower: On semiotic analysis of subject and knowledge

pages: 102-120

Abstract

This paper considers epistemological implications of the concept of performative, starting from the elaborate conception provided by Judith Butler’s theories. The primary postulate of this work is that various interpretations of the performative, with their semiotic shifting from the notions of truth-evaluability and the descriptive nature of meaning, form a line of aban­doning traditional epistemological distinction between subject and object. Through other semiotic concepts which will be presented and analysed, this line reveals the key epistemological issues in the light of semiology, while Judith Butler’s concept of performativity is viewed as a possible outcome of this course of semiology of knowledge, resulting in final transcending of the category of subject. Keywords: performative, epistemology, semiotics, subject, identity, discourse, truth-evaluability, meaning