Excitable Speech - A Politics of the Performative

''When we claim to have been injured by language, what kind of claim do we make?'' - Judith Butler, Excitable Speech

Excitable Speech is widely hailed as a tour de force and one of Judith Butler''s most important books. Examining in turn debates about hate speech, pornography and gayness within the US military, Butler argues that words can wound and linguistic violence is its own kind of violence. Yet she also argues that speech is ''excitable'' and fluid, because its effects often are beyond the control of the speaker, shaped by fantasy, context and power structures.

In a novel and courageous move, she urges caution concerning the use of legislation to restrict and censor speech, especially in cases where injurious language is taken up by aesthetic practices to diminish and oppose the injury, such as in rap and popular music. Although speech can insult and demean, it is also a form of recognition and may be used …