Literary education exposes students to unpredictable critical momentsin their encounters with a text. Drawing on Dewey’s transactional realism and actor-network theory, this theoretical and conceptual studyexplores the performativity of things and materials as they shapereading and teaching bodies. This transactional performativity extendsbeyond the physical positioning of the body to the power relationsenacted in text situations. The conceptual rationale is illustrated by a story about a reading chair in a detention home for detained young men—an environment where power issues come to a head. The storyillustrates a theoretical discussion of what might be characterized asperforming ‘the critical’ in reading and how potentialities for students’experiences are created in text situations by the different components involved. The purpose of the article is to explore the potentialities of performing critical aspects of reading to challenge, to transform, and to encourage resistance.