A Synthesis of Keywords from
Wilhelm v. Humboldt's “On Gender Difference and its
Influence on Organic Nature” and “On Male and Female Form”
(1795)
| masculinity |
femininity |
- form
- reason
- generative power/drive*
- light
|
- matter
- feeling
- receptive power/drive*
- warmth
|
* These dichotomies come from the Classical concept that
male sperm generates life, whereas the female provides
passive matter in the procreative process. See Aristotle, De
Generatione Animalium, in The Works of Aristotle,
eds. J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, trans. Arthur Platt
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949), 5:729b-731b and
Hippocrates, On Generation (6-8), trans. Iain M.
Lonie (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1981), 3-4.
Other Theorists who Favor Essentialist Views of Gender
- Sigmund Freud: Oedipal Complex vs. Elektra
Complex
II. Poststructuralist (Klages 92)
Feminist Theorists
- Lacan > Cixous and Irigaray: In what ways are
women allowed to express themselves as subjects (rather
than objects) of discourse (which, in patriarchal
society, is dominated by phallogocentrism)?
Reading a Text through
the Lens of Gender
1. Issues of Power: In what ways does
gender determine who has power? In what ways
does gender identity affect the ways in which
characters can become subjects?
2. Women's Writing (l'écriture
féminine, Klages 102): In what ways has the
author's gender shaped the production of the text,
and its reception? (Klages 93-5, Gilbert &
Gubar, Cixous & Clément)
3. Essentialism vs. Poststructuralism:
In what ways does the text either essentialize or
question the essentializing of gender
characteristics? In what ways
does the author try to redefine, challenge, or
support normative gender constructs?
|
III. Discussion Questions: Find specific passages and
closely analyze them through the lens of gender--
1. Issues of Power: What does it mean to be male or
female (Terran and T'lic) in the world and narrative of
Bloodchild? In what ways does gender relate to issues
of power?
2. Women's Writing: Thinking of the Charlie Rose
interview we saw last week, speculate on the ways in which
being a woman writer affects the production and reception of
Butler's work. Then analyze her Afterword: how does
Butler define the purpose of her writing (and negotiate her
role as a woman writer)?
3. Essentialism vs. Poststructuralism: a) In what
ways, and in which specific passages, does Butler seem to essentialize
notions of gender? What characteristics seem inherently male
or female, and what consequences does that have for a
character's destiny? b) Which passages point to Butler's poststructuralist
concepts of gender identity?
Works Cited
Cixous, Hélène and Catherine Clément.
The Newly Born Woman.
Trans. Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1988.
Gilbert, Sandra M.
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman
Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination.
Yale University Press, 2000. Print.
Klages, Mary.
Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed.
NY: Continuum, 2006. Print.