Introduction: On Linguistic Vulnerability -- 1. Burning Acts, Injurious Speech -- 2. Sovereign Performatives -- 3. Contagious Word: Paranoia and "Homosexuality" in the Military -- 4. Implicit Censorship and Discursive Agency
Summary
Excitable Speech examines the issue of the threatening action of words. Negotiating the work of Austin, Derrida and Bourdieu, Butler offers a theory of the political performativity of language and illuminates the efficacy of injurious language
