The Ethics Of Literary Performative

J.Hillis Miller paid special attention to the ethical dimension of reading behavior and literary criticism when advocating the theory of deconstructive criticism and speech act.He holds the view that reading behavior and literary criticism are responsible activities,trying to construct an ethical reading mode.Miller’s reading ethics gives a typical expression to the “ethics turn” emerging since the 1980 s in the development of western critical theory.That is,the connotation of ethic regulations should be redefined from the perspective of textual language.On the other hand,Miller’s reading ethics provides an entrance to his speech act theory.He views reading as a performative process with a stress on the readers’ contribution to the generation of textual meaning,which gives a full demonstration on the performative power of literature.Chapter One conducts research on the theoretical origins of Miller’s views on literary language and ethics.He inherits and develops the speech act theory pioneered by Austin and the rhetorical view of language by Paul de Man.As for ethics,he gets main inspirations from the ethical orientation in Derrida’s deconstruction thoughts.Chapter Two gives an overview of the connotation of Miller’s reading ethics.Miller reconstructs the connotation of "ethics" through the deconstruction of the traditional ethics exemplified by Kant and defines "ethics" as a text-based categorical imperative.Miller also extends his literary speech act theory to reading studies and takes reading as an ethic and obligation-related activity in life.During this process,readers are not only restricted within the mandatory and compulsory choices from the textual language,but also given the freedom to rewrite the text.Ethical reading is aimed to realize the practice of inter-subjectivity communication based on text,focusing on textual language,whose effects,however,are not bounded by the text.Miller believes that ethic reading will have an impact on society,history,politics and some other aspects.Chapter Three intends to delve into the implications of Miller’s reading ethics in literary studies and the limitations of the theory itself.The methods and perspectives embodied in Miller’s reading ethics are of referential significance for current literary studies.Nevertheless,the deficiency of this kind of value-free reading ethics should never be ignored;as a reading theory,it mechanically creates an abstract reader group and gives no clear-cut boundaries to readers’ freedom of interpretation.