The Language of Atoms: Performativity and Politics in Lucretius' De rerum natura

Abstract

Abstract The Language of Atoms argues that ancient Epicurean writing on language offers a theory of performative language. Such a theory describes how languages acts, providing psychic therapy or creating new verbal meanings, rather than passively describing the nature of the universe. This observation allows us new insight into how Lucretius, our primary surviving Epicurean author, uses language in his great poem, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). The bulk of the book then studies Lucretius’ work in the light of performative language, looking at promising, acts of naming, and the larger political implications of these linguistic acts. At the center of De rerum natura is a persistent juxtaposition of humans and atoms that carries implications for both the creative potential of language and its deceptive powers.