Department of English

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Browsing Department of English by Author "Betts, Lenore"

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    Puffball and The handmaid's tale : the influence of pregnancy on the construction of female identity
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-12) Betts, Lenore; Goodman, Ralph; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses an analysis of Fay Weldon's Puffball and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale to explore the construction of identity, particularly female identity. It takes into consideration the influence of both biology and culture on identity and explores how, within the context of the patriarchal societies depicted by the novels, female identity is closely linked to reproductive function. It examines how the construction of female identity based on reproductive function further objectifies the female body in society, and how it can aid patriarchal domination and oppression of women. The analysis of the novels draws on both essentialist and social constructionist feminist approaches to oppression and female identity. The essentialist approach views female biological difference (reproductive function) as responsible for the way in which women are oppressed. The social constructionist view argues that female oppression stems from the social construction of female identity around concepts of motherhood and femininity. The thesis takes both approaches into account as it seeks to explain how patriarchy oppresses women through the construction of female identity. The thesis also explores how control over the female body and identity can be exercised through reproductive technology. An examination of the role reproductive technology plays in contributing to patriarchal dominance, suggests that new technologies may compel women to conform to stereotypes of femininity based on pregnancy and motherhood. The thesis considers the impact infertility and the choice not to have children have on female identity and takes into account the options available to these women. The main focus, with regard to infertility and choice, is on the relationship between women who have children and those who do not. This thesis refutes the notion that there is solidarity between women based on shared childbearing experience, and focuses on the conflict that occurs between fertile and childless women. It finds that the conflict that occurs is a result of the socialisation of women into viewing motherhood as an essential aspect of 'normal' femininity. The thesis also considers what causes the desire to have children and finds that, as in the case of the conflict between women, it is as a result of socialisation and an innate/instinctual biological drive. The thesis investigates options available to women in order for them to avoid constructing their identities solely around their reproductive function. It considers the alternatives women are presented with when constructing their identity and how these may contribute to or liberate them from patriarchal oppression. If they choose to identify themselves using patriarchal norms, then they are contributing to their objectification; but if they choose to construct their identity on their own terms, and offer some resistance to patriarchal constructions, they will be more liberated than women who conform to stereotypes. Evidence of such resistance can be seen in both novels in the narrative structure the respective authors have chosen: just as the main characters subvert traditional stereotypes through the construction of their own identity, embracing female experience on their own terms, so do both authors subvert traditional narratives.