In the story of the three baseball umpires, two novice umpires compete in boasting how they respect -truth- and the way things -really- are. One says, -I call them the way I see them-; the other, trying to trump this remark, responds, -I call them the way they are-. Then enters the third, most seasoned umpire, saying, -They aren't, until I call them-.
This book deals with two widely argued issues in literature criticism today, performativity and subjectivity. How do people become who they are? What scripts do they follow when they -do- gender, race, and sexuality? Tying into speech act theories and subjectivity theories, as well as gender, race, and sexuality studies, the author explores - through the close reading of several American texts - the many ways words make -things- in literature."