Abstract

This thesis examines Judith Butler's account of performative agency in relation to its critics, in particular, the question of whether Butler's thesis disavows materiality and thereby agency. These questions are answered by reading Butler's work through the work of Merleau-Ponty, in particular, by comparing Butler's account of performative agency to Merleau-Ponty's account of bodily intentionality. It is argued that a common ground underlies these featured concepts. I identify this common ground through the institution of the concept "simultaneity" to express a relationship of reciprocity between meaning and materiality through which ontological and epistemological significance is, reciprocally, sedimented and transformed; stabilised and destabilised.