Address, self-address

Abstract

The paper takes as its starting point the premise that address can be understood as a speech act. It asks wherein lies the performative outcome and power of address and self-address, in particular with regard to the effect of the address on the addressee. The problem is put in a specific light by the lyrical figure of self-addressing, which the paper examines in the context of a close reading of Attila József's poem Tudod, hogy nincs bocsánat (Mercy Denied Forever, transl. by Zs. Ozsváth and F. Turner), also commenting on Béla G. Németh’s classical essay on self-addressing. Throughout the analysis, an important role is given to the ambivalent relations of person marking in the poem and to the ethical dilemmas implied in the figure of self-address. The paper also discusses those aspects of performative language (above all the speech act of the promise) that play a central role in the articulation of self-address. It seeks to interpret the ethical problems they reveal, especially in the closing section of the poem, within the philosophical framework provided by
Derridian deconstructivism. The arguments drawn here help to make addressability understood as one of the guarantees of being a person the object of critical reflection.