A Study Androgynous Representations In Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides is one of the most celebrated contemporary American novelists and by far has published three novels and one short story collection.His Pulitzer-winning novel Middlesex was listed in“25 Novels That Inspired the World”by World Literature Today and included by BBC Culture website as one of“The 21~stt Century's 12 Greatest”.Middlesex tells the coming-of-age story of Cal,the intersexed protagonist,his sex and gender confusion in first-person perspective;and a family saga of immigration and the realization of American dream from the third-person view.Cal's gender identity and the ethnic identity of the Stephanides are the main focuses of majority studies.Within the theory framework of Homi Bahbah's hybridity and Michael Foucault's biopolitic,some critics question the feasibility of the“third space”in Middlesex and others argue that the impossible middle space indicates the absence of tolerance and diversities.Despite the fact that the novel invokes both the concepts of“androgyny”and“hermaphrodite”,due to the implication of dichotomous nature,the importance of androgyny and hermaphrodite in critical aspect are overlooked.However,when asked whether a fictional intersexed narrator is believable,Eugenides argued that the nature of novelist is androgynous and that writers must be comfortable with both sexes and be able to change between two sexes.Therefore,it is clear that Middlesex stands not to transcend the dichotomy and create another perfect third-space,but to question and trespass dichotomous boundaries.Based on the concept of hermaphrodite and androgyny,this thesis tries to reveal the androgynous and hermaphroditic nature of Middlesex,instead of hybrid in gender identity,ethnic identity and narrative strategy.From female to male,Cal's successful metamorphosis,according to theorist Judith Butler's performative gender is the transformation of gender not sex.Cal is comfortable with his intersexed body and decides to stay true to his gender as a man.However,his upbringing as a girl/woman and his compassion for women has unqualified him as the entitled,privileged white man in heteronormative society.Cal can be seen either as a man with androgynous mentality or a happy version of Hermaphroditus.As the first-generation immigrant,Lefty upholds contractual spirit while Desdemona puts her faith in kinship.However,neither the inclusiveness and open-heartedness of Lefty nor Desdemona's conservatism can cancel the uneasy doubleness inherent in their struggle between ethnic identity and American identity,as the melancholy Greek deity Hermaphroditus.Middlesex tells the Bildungsroman in first-person perspective and family immigration saga in third-person view,shuffling between inside and outside world of Cal,bodily fact of the intersexed and individual experience,historical events and lived life of the participants.The tabooed,abnormal image of intersexed person is objectively and compassionately presented through balanced,androgynous perspectives.The ancient theme of two-in-one that reintroduces a state of inclusion indicates that the true salvation of Cal is not a clear-cut definition of oneself but the long lost tolerance from outside world.