The Concept of Performativity in Narratology

This essay traces the travelling concept of performativity across the field of narratology. Distinguishing different forms of interdisciplinary transfer, the text offers a definition of performativity in narratology and attempts to give a systematic account of how the concept has been adapted to narratological research. I argue that the concept of performativity can refer to two distinct levels of the narratological investigation – to the story level and to the narrator's agency or act of narration, and that this act can also be considered in a wider pragmatic and cultural context. Special attention is given to the relation between the concepts of performativity and performance on the one hand, and the relation between performativity and speech act theory on the other.