| The body is an important cultural concept in Western philosophy beyond its biological meanings.In Michael Foucault’s genealogical research,the body is a crucial object of power mechanism,due to its manipulability to and compliance with power.Established upon Foucault’s elaboration on the body,the thesis examines the politics of the body in Irish writer James Joyce’s Dubliners,particularly the construction of desexualized,feminine,and masculine bodies,apart from the resistance of the body.The body is first and foremost examined as a site of sexual desires.The thesis contends that the body showcases great resisting energy against sexual repression that aims to create de-sexualized and pure bodies through language censorship and punishment of "excess"desire.For instance,the Magdalene Laundries imprisoned the so-called fallen women and attempted to eradicate their sexual desires via hair cutting,endless laboring,and life-long incarceration.Resistance against sexual discipline includes(a)embracing one’s desires,and(b)deconstructing religious definitions of sex and appropriating disciplinary rules on sex as a tool for economic benefits.The body is further examined as a constructive site of gender(femininity and masculinity)in Irish historical context.On the one hand,the construction of femininity is mainly managed through the mystification of the female body.Mothers are mystified as honorable caretakers of domesticity and "regenerators of the world".They are disciplined to sacrifice themselves for the family and take on the responsibility for promoting social morals.Women under light are mystified by the male gaze,serving the construction of masculinity.Women resist the construction of femininity by going beyond the prescribed femininity and entering the male world,and claiming female subjectivity.On the other hand,the construction of masculinity is a critical means of the Nationalist resistance against the British feminization and bestialization of Irishmen.Irish Nationalists take Irish masculinity as parallel to national sovereignty and believe that the construction of the former would bring the latter.The construction of masculinity is analyzed from aspects of sports,militantism,and martyrdom,all of which work to create the ideal Irish masculinity.However,coming with the nationalist construction of masculinity,there arises the exclusion of other forms of the male body and the danger of hypermasculinity. |
