Performativity

Performativity is an interdisciplinary term often used to name the capacity of speech, as a production of the "speaking body" (Felman 1980/2003), as well as other non-verbal forms of expressive action, to perform a type of constructed identity. It is the construction of identity and the reality that surrounds and conditions it through (mostly verbalized) social interaction. The defining performative act is typically performed by entire groups: it is not enough to perform oneself as something (as straight or gay, for example). The audience contributes more than mere ratification of an individual's performance; it conditions and channels that performance, and so makes its results not only meaningful but real(-seeming) (Robinson (2003, 2006).