Author: Ensslin, Astrid

Source: Journal of Gender Studies, Volume 14, Number 3, November 2005 , pp. 205-216(12)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

The notion of the gendered desert as an ambivalent setting, encompassing death and survival, has found manifestations in both modernist and postmodernist Anglophone literature. The wasteland topos is seen here as a paradoxical offshoot of the pastoral tradition. Whereas T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) employs it to express post-war disillusionment in abstract, psychological terms, Shelley Jackson's hypertext narrative Patchwork Girl – or A Modern Monster (1993) – turns it into a symbol of deconstructing a male-dominated literary paradigm. Desert landscapes are understood as gendered in both texts – representing the female as a jigsaw totality of womanhood. From a diachronic point of view, Eliot's text renders its female subjects as victims of failed Western civilisations. An ecofeminist reading compares the desert landscape with sterilised female sexuality and spirituality. By contrast, Jackson's hypernarrative invites a rather more optimistic, cyberfeminist reading, denoting the overcoming of gender boundaries imposed by ecofeminism. Presenting her readers with a prototypical cyborg, Jackson offers a positive outlook to a technophile Western readership. To provide a theoretical foundation, this article examines (post)modern approaches to the pastoral mode as well as aspects of current feminist criticism and feminine American frontier mentality.

Keywords: Cyberfeminism; cyborg; ecofeminism; frontier woman; hypertext; pastoral

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09589230500264356

Publication date: 2005-11-01

More about this publication?

• Editorial Board
• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Families & Communities ,  Gender Studies
• By this author: Ensslin, Astrid

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers