Linguistic Performance as Resistance in Saddam Hussein's Trial: A Performativity-Theoretic Perspective

Abstract

Drawing on Butler's Performativity Theory (PT), this study explores how linguistic performance serves as a mechanism of resistance in the trial of Saddam Hussein. The main objective of the paper is to demonstrate the extent to which language is strategically employed to achieve resistance and formulate political and authoritarian identity, particularly within a context of political powerlessness. In so doing, the paper's analytical focus is on various linguistic strategies and discursive practices used by courtroom participants to show how linguistic performances contribute effectively to conveying resistance. These encompass speech acts, implicatures, lexicalization, and impoliteness strategies. Two main findings are revealed in this paper: First, despite his contextual powerlessness, Saddam Hussein possesses performative power. Such a performativity is dexterously achieved by the use of specific linguistic strategies, communicating particular pragmatic meanings that not only dislocate the discursive norms of courtroom discourse but also flout the linguistic expectations pertinent to this discourse genre. Second, Saddam's linguistic performance during his trial goes beyond its surface semantic functionality of defense towards further illocutionary meanings of ideological resistance.