Gender as a Trouble in Angela Carter's the Nights at the Circus

Abstract

This paper will focus on Judith Butler's work on gender and performativity. It will use Butler's example of drag queen and gender parody as a way to understand the reality of female gender from unreal one. It will explore that the reality of gender is not fixed as we generally assume it to be and the purpose to this paper is to expose the weakness of gender reality to create a true model of gender. This essay is examined the works of Angela Carter. The novel under the study is Nights at the Circus (1984) Understood through the lens of Butler’s theory of gender performativity, Fevvers, the main    character of the novel dramatizes the idea that gender identity is not fixed in nature but it relies on culturally constructed signification. He will emphasize that gender is something that is attached onto the body through socialization, and not something that is ?xed at birth.

Keywords: Gender, Performativity, Carter, Butler, Identity