The constative claim is always to some degree performative

Evidence

Butler says, “To claim that discourse is formative is not to claim that it originates, causes, or exhaus.. tively composes that which it concedes; rather, it is to claim that there is no reference to a pure body which is not at the same time a fu formation of that body. In this sense, the linguistic capacity to refer to sexed bodies is not denied, but the very meaning of ‘referentiality’ is altered. In philosophical terms, the constative claim is always to some degree performative” ( Butler 1 993 , 10- 1 ). — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 140

Categorization

• DEFINE: Butler’s precise account of discourse’s formative power over the body — a calibration of the poststructuralist claim the book builds toward.