Big Theory Words

Most of the time, these days, I'm reading over my own writing, or comments on my writing, or primary texts. Occasionally, though, I must return to a Big Theory article in order to help me articulate some idea or another. Yesterday afternoon (whilst reclining on a chaise beneath a patio umbrella in 80-something warmth, feeding the occasional ice cube to the dog beside me), I re-read some articles on performance.

Julia Walker's excellent 2003 Yale Journal of Criticism piece "Why Performance? Why Now?" used two words I had to look up. Here they are for your edification and enjoyment:

1. "In other words [she writes, in her reconsideration of Austin v. Derrida], every sign--whether written or spoken--automatically undergoes a process of dehiscence [...]" (159). (Please note that the second half of this sentence, on the other side of the semi-colon, also begins with "that is," which is likely an occupational hazard of interpreting Derrida.)

Dehiscence, according to the OED, is defined as "gaping, opening by divergence of parts, esp. as a natural process [...]." The way a tomato, surfeit with rain, splits open. The way a horse chestnut's shell ripens and dries and splits, revealing the smooth brown nut within. Though of course, when speaking of language a la Derrida, there would be no smooth brown nut of signification. I see my words hanging in a cartoon bubble in the air, signifier clinging to signified for a nanosecond before the natural process of ripening and decay takes over. "Ripe plums are falling."

2. "Here we see various fictional identities ostended to any one actor's body, suggesting that the body can be known through many different language game" (168).

To ostend is "to show, reveal; to manifest or exhibit; [...] to point out, indicate directly," says the OED.