Force of Language

Denise Riley teaches at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her most recent books are The Words of Selves: Identification, Solidarity, Irony and Selected Poems. Jean-Jacquies Lecercle is Professor of English in the University of Paris at Nanterre, France. He has published widely in the fields of philosophy of language and literary theory, and is the author of The Violence of Language, Philosophy of Nonsense, Interpretations of Pragmatics and Deleuze and Language.

'This is an absorbing and brilliant book, original in its form and far-reaching in its theoretical ambition. Writing in counter-point, Riley and Lecercle propose another philosophy of language, one that displaces the familiar but increasingly unproductive dichotomy between language as inner speech (subjectivity) and language as external system (langue). In erudite, witty, and cunning prose, the authors elegantly put flesh on the bones of the claim that language is a social praxis, specifically, a praxis of affect and force. The radical challenge their arguments present to the stale theoretical consensus on what language is will resonate through linguistics, the philosophy of language and cultural studies.' - Professor Ellen Rooney, Department of Modern Culture and Media, Brown University, USA

• Introduction; J-J.Lecercle PART ONE - D. Riley 'A Voice Without a Mouth': Inner Speech; D.Riley 'Bad Words': The Forensics of Spoken Injury; D.Riley PART TWO - J-J Lecercle Another Philosophy of Language; J-J.Lecercle The Concept of Language We Don't Need; J-J.Lecercle The Concept of Language We Do Need; J-J.Lecercle Index