Confusion Of Sexual And Gender Identity In Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine

Through character analysis and based on gender theories, this study intends to discuss the representation of the confusion of sexual and gender identity in Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine and explore the causes of confusion against the social background.The whole play consists of two acts. Through the setting of the nineteenth century British colonialism in Act I, Churchill explores the connections between race, gender, sexuality and the politics of oppression. In Act II although one hundred years has passed, the characters have moved on only twenty-five years. And no matter they live in which historical period, all of them are facing the difficulties in breaking through the defenses of the dominant group and finding their real sexual and gender identities. They question the values inherited through patriarchy, calling for changes, and eventually come to a subversion of the concepts of traditional sexual and gender identity. Dramatic techniques such as gender crossing are employed by the playwright to emphasize the subversion. But since people are closely linked to the mores, culture and norms of the past, change is not simply a matter of individual determination. The conflict of tradition and individual change leads to the confusion of sexual and gender identity of the characters in this play.This study starts off from the brief explanation of terms: sexual identity and gender identity. Besides the definition and difference of these two terms, the existence of diversity of sexual identity and academic research for the indeterminacy of gender identity are also introduced. Chapter II gives detailed analysis of individual characters' confusion of sexual and gender identity. And based on the social background study both of the Victorian period and the 1970s, the last chapter tries to explore the causes of the confusion.