Outraging Speech: On the Politics of Performative Contradictions

Posselt offers an account that understands performative contradiction no longer as a form of self-refuting speech, but rather as a ‘contradiction’ that is inherent to any political act that involves the demand and exercise of fundamental rights. While in the context of universal pragmatics-as developed by Apel and Habermas-the allegation of performative self-contradiction is used to delineate the field of rational speech, Posselt argues that what is at stake in the debate on performative contradictions are not only the foundations of rational discourse, but also the question of what it means to be a legitimate speaking subject. Referring to Butler and Derrida, the chapter stresses that performative contradictions play a vital role in subject formation and political agency as well as in any radical politics of change.