LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:4 April 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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The Living Dead and the Logic of Performativity:
An Analysis of The Picture of Dorian Gray

Aiswarya Sureshan, Research Scholar and Dr. M Raja Vishwanathan


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

Art-aided novels that make references to visual images like painting open up the possibility of examining artwork or fiction as transitive and performative because such novels have the potential to act beyond the plane of confinement to perform and bring into effect what they describe. Though there have been many studies and plenty of research on performance, performance art and the application of the theory of performativity to texts and cultural practices, their application to novels and artistic works remains largely underexplored.

This paper is an attempt to apply the concept of performativity to the reading of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel which embodies painting as its focal theme. The study largely draws upon theoretical insights from J. L Austin’s “speech act theory” to analyze performativity under three different heads namely, the text, the painting and the reader by using textual evidence to substantiate the theoretical argument. This approach informed by performativity directs attention to what visual art or texts can do, that is, its function apart from just focusing on the content or plot. The analysis challenges the long-held assumption that painting is representative and non-performative as it is complete in itself. Since a painting is a “trace structure”, that is, since it carries traces of multiple factors which are suffused into its making, it acquires a dynamic quality by which it can assert and re-assert itself upon the consciousness of the subject with which it interacts and initiate strange transformations in them, thereby altering reality.

Keywords: Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Logic of Performativity, painting, the text and the reader.

1. Introduction

Fictions are not just non-human word masses bound within the covers of the text. The ontology of fictional characters is ghost-like, for they inhabit a phantom structure and exist uneasily between the textual space and the minds of the readers. Despite the fact that the events being portrayed are unreal, books, like a haunting enigma, unsettle the readers because they can transcend their level of representation and perform the reality they describe. The concept of art coming to life can be traced back to the mythological story of Pygmalion, wherein the ivory statue sculpted by the artist comes alive and begins to perform in real life. This theme of transcending the boundaries between art and reality had a profound influence on novelists, especially of the nineteenth century. Writers have integrated visual arts like painting into their fictional narratives with the aim to highlight the marvelous power of art to influence life and act as a catalyst in instigating strange transformations in the characters and the readers by directly confronting their psychological state of mind.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Aiswarya Sureshan, Research Scholar
H&SS, NIT Warangal, India
achusura98@gmail.com

Dr. M Raja Vishwanathan
Assistant Professor
H&SS, NIT Warangal, India
vishwanathan@nitw.ac.in
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