Universidade Do Estado Do Rio De Janeiro Centro De Educação E Humanidades Instituto De Letras
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Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro Centro de Educação e Humanidades Instituto de Letras Janine de Oliveira Fontenla Transgenders or Transsexuals? Identities, Sexualities and Genders in The Well of Loneliness and Stone Butch Blues Rio de Janeiro 2009 Janine de Oliveira Fontenla Transgenders or Transsexuals? Identities, Sexualities and Genders in The Well of Loneliness and Stone Butch Blues Dissertação apresentada, como requisito parcial para obtenção do título de Mestre, ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Área de concentração: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Orientadora: Profª. Drª. Eliane Borges Berutti Rio de Janeiro 2009 CATALOGAÇÃO NA FONTE UERJ/REDE SIRIUS/CEHB H174 Fontenla, Janine de Oliveira. Transgenders or transsexuals ? identities, sexualities and genders in The well of loneliness and Stone butch blues / Janine de Oliveira Fontenla. – 2009. 105 f. Orientadora: Eliane Borges Berutti. Dissertação (mestrado) – Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Letras. 1. Hall, Radclyffe, 1886-1943. The well of loneliness – Teses. 2. Feinberg, leslie, 1949- . Stone butch blues – Teses. 3. Transexuais – Teses. 4. Identidade sexual na literatura – Teses. 5. Stephen Gordon (Personagem fictício) – Teses. 6. Jess Goldberg (Personagem fictício) – Teses. I. Berutti, Eliane Borges. II. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Instituto de Letras. III. Título. CDU 820-95 Autorizo, apenas para fins acadêmicos e científicos, a reprodução total ou parcial desta dissertação __________________________ __________________ Assinatura Data Janine de Oliveira Fontenla Transgenders or Transsexuals? Identities, Sexualities and Genders in The Well of Loneliness and Stone Butch Blues Dissertação apresentada, como requisito parcial para obtenção do título de Mestre, ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras, da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Área de concentração: Literaturas de Língua Inglesa. Aprovada em 29 de Setembro de 2009. Banca Examinadora: _________________________________________________ Profª. Drª. Eliane Borges Berutti (Orientadora) Instituto de Letras da UERJ _________________________________________________ Profª. Drª. Ana Lucia de Souza Henriques Instituto de Letras da UERJ _________________________________________________ Profª. Drª. Daniela Gianna Cláudia Beccaccia Versiani Departamento de Letras da PUC – Rio Rio de Janeiro 2009 DEDICATION To my sons João Marcus e José Paulo, who have given me motivation and strength to do my share in the pursuit of a better world. To my loving husband Murillo, who has always been supportive and understanding, even when he did not agree with some of my choices. To my parents Alfonso and Edicéia, who have taught me that everything you do comes back to you, telling me I must always be respectful and conscious in relation to others. To cousin Petrônio, in memoriam, for showing me that beauty and happiness can be found in the simplest things in life. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several people have contributed to the final result of this work. Among these, I would particularly like to thank: My advisor Eliane Borges Berutti, for being so contagiously passionate about your research, giving me the chance to see the world from a different perspective; for your time, dedication and patience to guide my steps into this new field in which I was so ignorant; for understanding my limitations even when I was unable to measure how far they went; for consistently praising my rights and criticizing my faults. Thank you so much! My mother Edicéia, for always helping and supporting me; for taking care of my sons so that I could study; for encouraging me to keep on fighting for what I believed was right; and above all, for showing me the good side of being different, even if it goes against some social codes. Thank you! My professors and colleagues from UERJ, for the support, the ideas and the wonderful time we spent together. Thank you all! When we use this constructive approach, identification becomes a shift in perspective rather than a closing of one’s eyes. […] Rather than reducing us to familiar elements, it can offer an introduction into the many layers that construct who we are. […] Identifying myself as a lesbian shifts the emphasis, suggesting a place to begin, not a place to end. Jewelle L. Gomez RESUMO FONTENLA, Janine de Oliveira. Transgenders or transsexuals ? identities, sexualities and genders in The well of loneliness and Stone butch blues. 2009. 105 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Literaturas em Língua Inglesa) – Instituto de Letras, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2009. Este trabalho tem como propósito analisar as questões de identidade, gênero e sexualidade nos romances The Well of Loneliness, de Radclyffe Hall, e Stone Butch Blues, de Leslie Feinberg. O foco desta análise recai sobre as personagens principais dos romances, Stephen Gordon e Jess Goldberg, que vivem múltiplos conflitos por conta de sua expressão e identidade de gênero não estarem em consonância com seu sexo biológico. A dissertação fundamenta-se nos conceitos teórico-metodológicos da teoria do corpo, na conceituação pós-moderna de identidade e nos conceitos de gênero e sexualidade, assim como seus desdobramentos. Dentre os conceitos considerados relevantes desenvolvidos para essa análise estão os transgenders e transexuais, uma vez que as protagonistas apresentam características congruentes com ambas as categorias. Considerando-se o desenvolvimento das personagens Jess e Stephen, pode-se perceber o caráter múltiplo e processual da identidade pós-moderna, tendo toda a gama de aspectos relacionados a gênero e sexualidade como elementos (trans)formadores. Palavras-chave: Identidade. Gênero. Sexualidade. ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to analyze the issues of identity, gender and sexuality in Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness and in Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues. The focus of this analysis lies in the main characters of the two novels, Stephen Gordon and Jess Goldberg, who live multiple conflicts since their gender identity and gender expression are not in consonance with their biological sex. The theoretical-methodological fundaments of this thesis are based on the concepts of the theory of the body, on the postmodern conceptualization of identity and the concepts of gender and sexuality, as well as their unfolding. Among the relevant concepts developed for this analysis are the transgenders and transsexuals, once the protagonists display features which are congruent with both categories. Concerning the development of the characters Jess and Stephen, one can notice the multiple and processual nature of the post modern identity, which has a whole range of aspects related to gender and sexuality as (trans)forming elements. Keywords: Identity. Gender. Sexuality. SUMMARY INCLUSION AS A MATTER OF UNDERSTANDING……..……….…….… 9 1 (UN)DEFINING IDENTITY, GENDER AND SEXUALITY…….………….… 22 2 STEPHEN AND HER WELL OF LONELINESS…….………………………. 40 2.1. The bodies in The Well ………………………………….…….….….………. 42 2.2. Social disobedience …..……………………………….……………….…..… 47 2.3. Love and loneliness.……….………………………….……………………… 53 3 JESS GOLDBERG – THE PROCESS OF BECOMING …………….......... 64 3.1. Sculpting the stone.………..……..…………………….………………….. …66 3.2. Pacifying the rivalries.…………………………………………………….….. 73 3.3. Solving the puzzle…………………………………………………..…………. 81 3.4. Stoning the well……………………………………………………..…………. 89 4. TRANSWHAT?! …………………………………………….….…………….... 95 REFERENCES …...…………………………………………...………………. 101 9 INCLUSION AS A MATTER OF UNDERSTANDING “Sexuality was a subject of intense interest and speculation to the intellectuals of Bloomsberry1” (Rule, 2001, 81), still being a frequent and important subject discussed in our postmodern society, especially due to the misconceptions, misjudgments and mainly the prejudice around it. Therefore, studies concerning sexuality, gender, and other related topics must be developed in order to avoid the aforementioned problems, many times derived from lack of understanding and information on the subject. Inclusion is also an update issue in society that apparently has recently been trying to be more tolerant, not to say receptive regarding differences in general, and here, in particular, differences in gender identity and expression as well as in sexual orientation. It is essential to point at the conceptual distinction between these two subjects, gender and sex. Although they are related to a certain extent, they are far from having similar meanings. There are clear boundaries that classify genders, masculine and feminine, concerning social behaviors based on characteristic stereotypes. Men are expected to be masculine; so as women are expected to be feminine, consequently they must act and dress accordingly. When people do not match these stereotypes, they tend to be excluded. Instead, if one tries to take an inclusive action, it is necessary to extinguish, or at least, make those gender boundaries more flexible, in order to dissolve the existing prejudice. Similarly, sexual orientation follows a strict pattern – a man is supposed to love and feel attracted to a woman and vice versa – leaving no space for diversity. There is diversity though! Therefore, people must recognize the unfolding of love and sexual attraction, making it possible to see beyond the binary sexual system imposed by the traditional western culture. In his essay entitled “Literatura, homoerotismo e pós-modernidade”, Leonardo Mendes quotes Zygmunt Bauman when he states that