The violence of language consists in its effort to capture the ineffable and, hence, to destroy it, to seize hold of that which must remain elusive for language to operate as a living thing.
Judith Butler, in her work "Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative," explores the complexities of language and its inherent limitations. She argues that language aims to articulate experiences and concepts that are often beyond precise expression. However, in this pursuit, language can inadvertently stifle the very essence it seeks to convey, as it tries to encapsulate the ineffable.
This tension highlights a paradox within communication: the more we attempt to define or describe profound ideas through words, the more we risk losing their core value and fluidity. Butler emphasizes the need for language to be dynamic, suggesting that it thrives when it acknowledges its own limitations and allows for the ungraspable to remain just out of reach.
