Geoffrey Hill and performative utterance

De Gaynesford, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2715-6342 (2013) Geoffrey Hill and performative utterance. British Journal of Aesthetics, 53 (3). pp. 359-364. ISSN 1468-2842 doi: 10.1093/aesthj/ayt018

Abstract/Summary

Utterance of a sentence in poetry can be performative, and explicitly so. The best-known of Geoffrey Hill’s critical essays denies this, but his own poetry demonstrates it. I clarify these claims and explain why they matter. What Hill denies illuminates anxieties about responsibility and commitment that poets and critics share with philosophers. What Hill demonstrates affords opportunities for mutual benefit between philosophy and criticism.