Ungendered Narrator in Written on the Body

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

Louise Halfe’s “Body Politics” challenges the qualities and behaviour of the idealized feminine woman by contrasting the stereotypical “city woman” with a more masculine “real woman.” The poem’s speaker describes her mother’s opinion of what it means to be a real woman, which is seen through “Mama said.” Throughout the poem, the speaker uses vivid imagery to create a stark contrast between the idealized feminine “city woman” and a “real woman” who does not conform to the feminine gender norm. To begin with, the title of the poem itself can be viewed as an obvious critique of the feminine ideal. By definition a body politic is a group of people “considered as a collective unit” (Merriam-Webster). This is significant because in Butler’s theory, she emphasizes that a person’s gender can vary depending on a given situation, and therefore women cannot be grouped together and defined exclusively by their feminine qualities. Instead, she argues that women should be viewed as individuals capable of possessing both masculine and feminine behaviour. This belief relates directly to the poem’s title, as Halfe is clearly making a statement on the manner in which patriarchal societies expect women to conform to a singular feminine ideal. Moreover, it illustrates how women’s bodies become a political site for the masculinist culture to impose feminine gender on. With consideration to the title’s reference to a homogeneous group of women, it is interesting that stanzas two through four all

The naturalized ideologies and categorizations of gender, sex, and sexuality are distorted through physical and genetic modifications. Lilith demonstrates that “to refuse to be a woman, does not mean that one has to become a man” (Wittig 12). Lilith, who is physically altered by the oolois, displays physical and behavioral male character traits; she fights in a way “only a man can fight” and is suspected to be a man (Butler 145). Also, Lilith runs away from her “family,” as only human males are expected to behave. Meanwhile, Butler confronts the idea in Rich's statement, that “sexuality and violence are congruent,” by describing Lilith as “biding her time, waiting for more information or a real chance to escape (Rich 209),” while the male character, Peter, “favored action” (Butler 175). Lilith breaks away from the original ideological gender construction and exemplifies the balance between gender and sexual identity outside of social standards. In doing so, Butler illustrates the development process of ideology through biological deformation of human (Lilith and her offspring) and recreates Wittig's idea of “a not-woman, a not-man, a product of society, not a product of nature, for there is no nature in society” (Wittig

Often times in literature the body becomes a symbolic part of the story. The body may come to define the character, emphasize a certain motif of the story, or symbolize the author’s or society’s mindset. The representation of the body becomes significant for the story. In the representation of their body in the works of Marie de France’s lais “Lanval” and “Yonec,” the body is represented in opposing views. In “Lanval,” France clearly emphasizes the pure beauty of the body and the power the ideal beauty holds, which Lanval’s Fairy Queen portrays. In France’s “Yonec,” she diverts the reader’s attention from the image of the ideal body and emphasizes a body without a specific form and fluidity between the forms. “Yonec” focuses on a love not

Butler claims that feminism should not try to define “woman” as western gender roles would but to focus more on how power functions shape our ideas of womanhood. Butler says in her work, “Although the claim of universal patriarchy no longer enjoys the kind of credibility it once did, the notion of a generally shared conception of “women” the corollary to that framework, has been much more difficult to displace. Is there some commonality among “women” that preexists their oppression, or do “women” have a bond by virtue of their oppression alone?..If there is a region of the specifically and recognizable in its difference by an unmarked and, hence, presumed universality of “women”? The masculine/feminine binary constitutes not only the exclusive framework in which that specificity can be recognized, but in every other way the “specificity” of the feminine is once again fully decontextualized and separated off analytically and politically from the constitution of class, race, ethnicity and other axes of power relations that both constitute identity and make the singular notion of identity a misnomer” (Butler,4). By this notion the protagonist’s identities should not be based entirely on marriage status or even the norm of the community as Kingslover demonstrates in Prodigal Summer. The community and region where the novel is set is a particularly interesting way that Kingslover attempts to deconstruct

For her article in the 1976 publication of the Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Helen Cixous writes, “Woman must write herself: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies—for the same reasons, by the same law, with the same fatal goal. Women must put herself into text—as into the world and into history—by her own movement” (Cixous 875). Kathy Acker does just this in her novel, Blood and Guts in High School. Unlike her male contemporaries, Acker took the risk of writing her own body into her text. As a woman who wrote from inside her skin and mind, she maintained an acute awareness that the metaphor of the body politic begins as a gendered experience.

The feminist movement, and by implication feminist theatre is a highly controversial and complex theory, filled with a variety of conflicting viewpoints. However, there are certain common characteristics that can be identified. This essay will discuss the most prominent themes of the body, heteroglossia, motherhood and the male gaze in feminist theatre with reference to “Boy gets girl” by Gilman (2000). As Kruger mentions various time throughout the Study Guide, the body is of great significance to feminist theatre (2011:130).

In my dissertation, I will explain how grotesqueness is based on the socially and culturally constructed notions gender, sex and sexuality in order to fit the goals and aims of the misogynistic practices of patriarchy. Accordingly, the grotesqueness of Joanna in Russ’s novel stems from her ‘perverted’ sexuality. Joanna’s tendency to lose her self-boundaries and merges with others displays another element of her grotesqueness. In her relationship with the male cyborg, Joanna’s body becomes open; it incorporates both sexes as it is exemplified in Bakhtin’s pregnant hag; the two bodies are blurred together. Dawning on Bakhtin’s definition of the grotesque, Joanna’s body is

I was drawn to the pairing of Judith Butler and Katherine Hayles primarily because of systemic difference in their thinking about subjectivity. Arguing for identity as constructed through performance, Butler rejects the essentialist idea that ones anatomical sex is expressive of their gender. Instead, Butler argues for identity as something that is constructed and performed through repetition. She believes that we constantly produce gender through what we do and furthermore that we have the power, through performance, to counter these essentialist models. Hayles’ focus, on the other hand, remains on the internal play of difference – signification that flickers between the human and something that is its radically other - the posthuman.

In his novel The Hours, Michael Cunningham creates a dazzling fabric of queer references managing to intertwine the lives of three different women into one smooth narrative. In this essay, I will discuss what makes The Hours queer literature, how the novel has contributed to the queer genre, the cultural significance of the novel, and I will discuss several points made in Jeanette McVicker’s critical article “Gaps and Absences in The Hours.” My aim, however, is not to say that Michael Cunningham’s The Hours is strictly a queer novel, but to highlight what makes the novel queer and to discuss Cunningham’s idea of sexual orientation as a fluid entity.

Judith Butler’s approach in “From Undoing Gender” lets the audience see a different side of opinions regarding gender. Judith’s presence and way of speaking lets us look at things in a way we never had before. She demonstrates her way of thinking, acknowledges other peoples ways of thinking and also goes outside the box in creating her own definition of undergoing gender.

Written on the Body, a novel by Jeanette Winterson, utilizes a genderless narrator to describe their encounters with various lovers, that ultimately combines sex and literature together to form a style of loving another person. Winterson’s protagonist remaining genderless allows the reader to recognize certain ideologies that in using the theory of Feminist Criticism is clearly influenced by certain patriarchal beliefs. These beliefs affect the reading of the narrator as genderless as the reader often oscillates between trying to assign the gender of the narrator as more masculine or feminine based on behavior that fits the patriarchal ideals of those gender roles. The narrator is further used in this novel to portray Winterson’s view of both sex and literature and their intertwining: through a close reading of certain passages, it is obvious that the narrator often equates sex as a form of saying “I love you”. The narrator also often will use text and literary imagery when trying to recreate past physical romances. This view of literature and sexual attraction as a form of loving another person, helps the reader piece together how Winterson wishes to depict the narrator’s limited view of love. Through the theories of both New Criticism and Feminist Criticism, Winterson is able to portray the limits one puts on themselves when adopting the ideologies of patriarchal roles and physical attraction over emotional connection.

According to Judith Butler’s theory, gender is a social concept and not a natural part of being, therefore making it unstable and fluid. Gender identities are produced through what Butler calls “performativity,” the repetitive acts of expression that form and define the notions of masculinity and femininity. These repeated performances are engrained within the heteronormative society and impose these gendered expectations on individuals. In this respect, gender is something inherent in a person, however Butler writes “gender is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject who might be said to pre-exist the deed.” In Olga Tokarczuk’s House of Day, House of Night identity is undoubtedly central to the characters’ stories, specifically the strict social constructs of gender that is snarled with one’s identity. Tokarczuk’s novel presents a mosaic of stories that put into question heteronormative gender roles, while offering an alternative way of existence. Analyzing House of Day, House of Night with Judith Butler’s gender theory demonstrates the characters struggles within the rigid constructions of gender and how some ultimately deal with moving past such restricting expectations.

When saying that there are certain folk or fairy tales about herself, Jeanette Winterson could not be more right, because there are indeed several myths surrounding her person. For many people Winterson's sexuality is the golden key to her public persona. Although she correctly states that `[she is] a writer who happens to like women, [and] not a lesbian who happens to write' most critics are only too willing to interpret her writing in an autobiographical way and restrict her to the literary persona of a lesbian writer only. However, this whole obsession about her sexuality is not the only myth surrounding her. Furthermore, critical opinion likes to describe her as a novelist who feels the constant need to defend her writing against the

The first poem in the collection is called ‘Body of a Woman’ and being the opening poem, it holds the responsibility of giving the reader an overall appearance of the collection as a whole. This is because this is the first impression the reader sees when opening the book and that imprints itself into the reader’s mind. The persona of the poem is presented as possessive and dominant. This is