Speech act metaphor in theatre

Theoretically, the existence of speech act metaphor would appear to be impo ssible, in that it would necessitate combining the principle of speech acti vity:which, as a specific kind of action, is a referential entity, and the principle of metaphor, which is a standard form of predication and descript ion of referential entities, including actions. The term 'speech act metaph or', however, denotes not a verbal metaphor in the propositional content (p ) of a speech act, either assertive or other but, rather, a speech act in w hich the performative component, either verbally indicated or otherwise, is metaphorical in itself. Speech act theory has contemplated the possible ex planation of verbal metaphor as a specific kind of speech act, combining li teral and non-literal elements, but not the possibility of a performative m etaphor. In the theatre, however, and in the so called Theatre of the Absur d in particular, there are many cases that can only be understood if it is assumed that such a combination of principles has materialized. I intend to illustrate this peculiar type of stage metaphor by speech acts in Ionesco' s Exit the King. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.