The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality in the Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman Brooke Alexandra Shippee University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2012 The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality in the Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman Brooke Alexandra Shippee University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Shippee, Brooke Alexandra, "The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality in the Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman" (2012). Theses and Dissertations. 296. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/296 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. THE ANDROGYNOUS TOMBOY: ADOLESCENT LIMINALITY IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN BILDUNGSROMAN THE ANDROGYNOUS TOMBOY: ADOLESCENT LIMINALITY IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN BILDUNGSROMAN A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English By Brooke Alexandra Shippee Stephens College Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, 2009 May 2012 University of Arkansas ABSTRACT The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality in the Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman is an analysis of the adolescent, and specifically, of the young tomboy characters central to three Bildungsroman texts set in the American South during the twentieth century: Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding (1946), Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country (1985) and Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina (1993). I seek to challenge the very notion of the conventional tomboy within the coming of age literary genre by defining these youths as androgynous, rather than as young individuals who assume a singular gender opposite of their biological sex. Throughout my work, I will examine how these figures become classified as individual distortions of normative girlhood and as a result, become threatened by cultural, historical and societal expectations within their respective eras; how their androgynous gender casts them as scapegoats and freaks within a society whose normativity is founded upon a strict masculine-feminine binary; and how their existence in a particular space – the American South – adds unconventional pressures as these tomboys realize their sexuality while enduring the painful, compulsory assimilation into Southern womanhood. Within this examination, the figure of the androgynous tomboy and the punishment these individuals accrue for their queer identity will serve as a reflection upon the damagingly absurd hetero-normative standards of both the South and our society as whole. Through analyzing the historical progression of gender within the Southern space, the tomboy will emerge as proof that the notion of dual, normative genders is destructive, yet remains relatively unmodified as of late. Ultimately, I will argue that these children, these tomboys, become queer figures because of their androgyny, as well as by the violence they are forced to endure as they realize their sexuality during their relatively innocent formative years. Their characterizations within these Bildungsroman narratives signify how evolved our society has become in terms of the acceptance of queer sexuality and genders in adolescents, and the degree to which society still must transform in order to achieve an identity that encompasses the fluidity of genders. This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. Thesis Director: __________________________________ (Dr. Lisa Hinrichsen) Thesis Committee: __________________________________ (Dr. Danny Sexton) __________________________________ (Dr. Amy Witherbee) THESIS DUPLICATION RELEASE I hereby authorize the University of Arkansas libraries to duplicate this thesis when needed for research and/or scholarship. Agreed _____________________________________ (Brooke Alexandra Shippee) Refused _____________________________________ (Brooke Alexandra Shippee) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I must thank my advisory committee, Dr. Lisa Hinrichsen, Dr. Danny Sexton, and Dr. Amy Witherbee, for their consistent support and exceptional guidance during the writing of this work. It has been a pleasure to share my studies with you, and I am honored to have worked alongside such outstanding educational professionals. I would also like to thank Linda Redfern and Fran Koenigsdorf for encouraging my love for literature and writing during my formative years, as well as the patient librarians at the Johnson County Library in Shawnee, Kansas, for their endless literary recommendations throughout my childhood. Additionally, I have to thank Dr. Marshall Boswell, Dr. Judith Clark, Dr. Kate Berneking Kogut and Dr. Tina Parke-Sutherland for their reassurance and guidance during my undergraduate studies at Rhodes College and Stephens College. An enormous amount of gratitude is extended to my friends - Jake Aslin, Kyle Elliott, Olwen Phillips, Wally Phillips, Paul Skains, Alley Stonestreet, and Drew Wallis - for their unconditional support at two in the morning and during happy hour. Their optimism, encouragement and offers to make coffee runs during the writing of this work were absolutely paramount, and without them, I would still be camped out in Mullins Library. Additional thanks are due to Caitlin and Joe Covey, for their invaluable emotional support at the Fayetteville Public Library during the early drafts of this thesis, and to Dr. Michael Carragher, whose recommendation to “apply at that college in Arkansas” changed my life for the better. DEDICATION This edition of The Androgynous Tomboy is dedicated to my parents, Bill & Sheri Shippee; I cannot thank them enough for their unconditional love and support throughout my life, from my first ‘publication’ (The Girl Who Sawed Wood) to this one. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. MASTER’S THESIS 3 A. Chapter One 3 B. Chapter Two 32 C. Chapter Three 62 III. WORKS CITED 86 Introduction “My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue?” Alice Hoffman The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality in the Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman is an analysis of the adolescent, and specifically, of the young tomboy characters central to three Bildungsroman texts set in the American South during the twentieth century: Carson McCullers’ The Member of the Wedding (1946), Bobbie Ann Mason’s In Country (1985) and Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina (1993). I seek to challenge the very notion of the conventional tomboy within the coming of age literary genre by defining these youths as androgynous, rather than as young individuals who assume a singular gender opposite of their biological sex. Throughout my work, I will examine how these figures become classified as individual distortions of normative girlhood and as a result, become threatened by cultural, historical and societal expectations within their respective eras; how their androgynous gender casts them as scapegoats and freaks within a society whose normativity is founded upon a strict masculine-feminine binary; and how their existence in a particular space – the American South – adds unconventional pressures as these tomboys realize their sexuality while enduring the painful, compulsory assimilation into Southern womanhood. What becomes of an individual who pervades both masculinity and femininity? How does the very existence of these individuals transform the normative structures of gender binaries? How does the subversion of these established gender norms become further compounded when an individual identifies with masculinity and femininity during the ultimate domain of the in-between of human life: adolescence? And at what moment, if ever, are they forced by society to choose sides? 1 Within this examination, the figure of the androgynous tomboy and the punishment these individuals accrue for their queer identity will serve as a reflection upon the damagingly absurd hetero-normative standards of both the South and our society as whole. Through analyzing the historical progression of gender within the Southern space, the tomboy will emerge as proof that the notion of dual, normative genders is destructive, yet remains relatively unmodified as of late. Ultimately, I will argue that these children, these tomboys, become queer figures because of their androgyny, as well as by the violence they are forced to endure as they realize their sexuality during their relatively innocent formative years. Their characterizations within these Bildungsroman narratives signify how evolved our society has become in terms of the acceptance of queer sexuality and genders in adolescents, and the degree to which society still must transform in order to achieve an identity that encompasses the fluidity of genders. 2 Chapter One: The Androgynous Tomboy Adolescent tomboys remain a fixture in coming-of-age works, forming the perfect body to encapsulate the identity struggle of young girls caught in the space between childhood and womanhood. These young heroines evolve from little girls into versions of the archetypal tomboy: skinny, knobby-kneed youths who wild ran with the boys, ignored authority, refused to don dresses or play nice with females their own age. Tomboys began appearing in literature during the nineteenth century, alongside the