Performativity in literature : The Lund-Nanjing seminars

The volume Performativity in Literature. The Lund-Nanjing Seminars contains a series of wideranging essays on the application of performance theory and the concept of performativity in literary studies, as well as on the practical and theoretical implications of such applications. In three thematic sections, 'Identity', 'Changing reality', and 'Beyond eventness' - with literary examples from China, Sweden, and the English-speaking world - the essays seek answers to the fundamental question of what a particular text does in a certain situation. And, in answering, each essay conceives of the text not only as meaning but as action.

The seventeen papers were originally discussed in joint seminars in Lund and Nanjing in the beginning of 2014, and presented at a conference in Stockholm in October 2014.