Fates of the PerformativeA powerful new examination of the performative that asks whats next? for this well worn concept From its humble origins in J. L. Austins speech act theory of the 1950s, the performative has grown to permeate wildly diverse scholarly fields, ranging from deconstruction and feminism to legal theory and even theories about the structure of matter. Here Jeffrey T. Nealon discovers how the performative will remain vital in the twenty first century, arguing