Alleviation: An International Journal of Nutrition, Gender & Social Development, ISSN 2348-9340, Volume 11, Issue No 11 (2024): 1-15
© Arya PG College (College with Potential for Excellence Status by UGC) & Business Press India Publication, Delhi
http://apcjournals.com, www.aryapgcollege.ac.in
Silencing Gender: The Lost Word’ through a Performativity Lens
Beant Kaur
Assistant Professor, Department of English
MTSM College for Women, Ludhiana
(Punjab), India
Email: beant16sidhu@gmail.com
Abstract
Esther Morgan’s poetry is celebrated for exploration of emotions, personal experiences and relationships through vivid imagery and symbolism. It is bestowed with rhythm for expressing themes of identity, selfhood, and belongingness. Her poetry often explores connections between human experience and the environment by incorporating natural imagery. Morgan’s subtle and nuanced style inspires procreation of complex emotions through simple language. Her artistry is a paragon of the role of the past in sculpting an individual and the symphony of the spoken and the silent owing ode to her veritable experiences of loss, grief and absence as a woman, augmenting femininity and the feminine identity. Esther Morgan’s personal experiences and perspectives as a woman and poet sires her interest in exploring identity, language and silence. This research paper is an attempt to study features of Gender Performativity theory by Judith Butler in Esther Morgan’s two poems titled’ same ‘The Lost Word’.
Keywords: Esther Morgan, Feminine Identity, Gender Performativity, Judith Butler, The Lost Word.
Introduction
“Language is not simply a passive reflection of reality, but an active construction of reality”
(Butler 1990).
Esther Morgan's poetry is celebrated for its exploration of emotions, personal experiences, and relationships through vivid imagery and symbolism. It is bestowed with rhythm for expressing themes of identity, selfhood, and belongingness. Her poetry frequently incorporates natural imagery, exploring connections between human experience and the environment. Morgan's style is marked by subtlety, nuance, and restraint for procreating complex emotions through simple language. Her artistry is a paragon of the role of the past in sculpting an individual and the symphony of the spoken and the silent owing ode to her veritable experiences of loss, grief and absence as a woman, augmenting femininity and the feminine identity. She has written two poems and titled them both ‘The Lost Word’ published in ‘Beyond Calling Distance’ (Morgan 2001) and in ‘Grace’ (Morgan 2011). ‘The Lost Word’ published in 2001explores themes of silenced voices, unspoken thoughts, and female experience. ‘The Lost Word’ (Morgan 2011) explores themes of loss, memory, and language. These poems also differ in tone as poem written in 2001, is more introspective, while the 2011 poem is more contemplative. Esther Morgan’s reuse of the title ‘The Lost Word’ showcases the significance of exploration of language, identity, and human experience. Mileswords are apt, “Women have always fought not just for survival, but for the meaning of struggle- now, they are organising, grouping and pushing forward, not merely for new definitions, but for the right to define.” (Miles 1988)
Judith Butler, a feminist philosopher in her work ‘Gender Trouble’, used term ‘Gender Performativity’ for the first time. Her theory challenges traditional notions of gender and identity. She put forth an argument that gender is performative rather than fixed. For her gender is not an inherent trait but rather a series of behaviours and performances that are socially constructed and repeated. According to Butler, gender identity is formed through repeated actions, speech, and social norms, which create the illusion of a stable gender identity. Miles enunciated it as “Eve’s sin consisted of reaching out for the tree of knowledge, so her punishment was to be forever deprived of it. Unchallenged for centuries, this attitude produced generations of doomed to be brought up in mental darkness and then condemned as stupid.” (Miles 1988)
The research objective of this paper is to critically examine how Esther Morgan’s ‘The Lost Word’ poems performativity negotiates gendered silence, exploring the intersections of language, identity, and power. Also uncovering the ways in which performative silence reinforces or subverts patriarchal norms.
Methodology
Following research methods were used for study-
1) Close reading and textual analysis
2) Intersectional and intersexuality analysis.
3) Critical discourse analysis.
Results and Discussion
‘The Lost Word’ (Morgan 2001 & 2011), poems reflected the societal and cultural climate of the early 21st century. It was a time when feminist movements and gender studies were gaining momentum, influencing literary discourse by increased awareness of language’s role in shaping gender identities and experiences. It was a part of the contemporary British poetry scene, influenced by modernist and postmodernist traditions. Esther Morgan’s personal experiences and perspectives as a woman and poet sires her interest in exploring identity, language and silence. Morgan’s poems intersect with feminist literary theory, particularly gender performativity”
(Butler 1988) and also engage her with language and identity studies, highlighting the power dynamics. Reflecting on the societal expectations and constraints placed on women's voices and experiences. She has explored the tension between spoken and unspoken words, highlighting the significance of silence. She quotes-
“The lost word /is the one I needed/ to say what I meant” (Morgan 2011).
Judith Butler in her ‘Gender Performativity Theory’ has shattered the walls of binary of sex and gender roles. She was of the view that all bodies are gendered from the beginning by their societies. It means gender is a verb rather than a noun as it involves sequences of “doing” rather than “being”. Gender is a particular type of process involving “a set of repeated acts within a rigid regulatory frame” (Butler 1990). This frame or mould is provided by a society in which the individual dwells. It directs an individual to behave in a particular way. Here her theory seems to resonate with Shakespeare’s phrase- “All the world’s a stage” which describes that life is a performance, where individuals play their roles.
Application of Butler’s ‘Gender Performativity Theory’ to the poems ‘The Lost Word’
1) Language as Performance
Butler views gender as the “cultural meaning that a sexed body assumes” through the internalisation and repetition of cultural customs, norms, laws and language. Gender for Butler is “the outward manifestation of sex inequality; sexuality is outward manifestation of discrimination in social relationships.”Gender manifests as the sexualisation of the entrenched inequality between men and women. The patriarchal language silenced women voices from times immemorial. Spender (1982) put it as , "Unless we can reconstruct our past, draw on in and transmit it to the next generation, our oppression persists”.
Esther here used language as a performer of various actions for searching and losing, effects of silence, reinforcing and challenging norms of society.
Language is performing –
“A silence that grows thicker” (Morgan 2011).
Silence here stands for being a non entity, when there is tension between an individual’s identity and societal expectations. This quietness and taciturnity resulted from linguistic exclusion. It represents the stage when an individual is unable to find words to express or articulate one’s true self. It is more challenging for the cornered and marginalized ones.
Language's potential to empower the misrepresented and unpresentedis also missing. Power, in Butler’s view is used for creating binary between men and women. She was wonderstruck at the impact of language and tradition in constituting the subject (individual or person). But lesser children of God are even unfortunate to have the “word”.
“I search for a word that will unlock” (Morgan 2011).
The gates of identity and dignity, autonomy and agency, recognition and representation, empowerment and enrichment. And also presenting language’s failure to access truth-
“But it is lost,/the word, the key”(Morgan 2011).
When the truth is replaced by silence, silence also seems a lie.
The very title of the poems‘The Lost Word’ isused metaphorically which stands for silenced feminine voices .The lost word is a two letter word, which can be“no”,“me”,“my”, “we”, “us” etc. shows unending search of a much needed word which reflects the feminine absence in the world. According to Feminist philosophy, it is essential to create a vocabulary that fully or sufficiently portrays women in order to increase their political presence.This has been crucial in light of the ubiquitous societal context where women’s experiences are either inaccurately or completely underrepresented (Butler 1990) .
“The lost word is the one I needed/to say what I meant” (Morgan 2001).
In the absence of the word, which Morgan tries to search for a decade and women, generally from ages can be excruciating as in the words of Virginia Woolf-
“For in silence, women have sat, thinking, thinking, thinking, till the thoughts swelled and burst” (Woolf 2004).
Performance of their silence can have a disastrous impact on their physical, mental, emotional, social aspects of their personality.
2) Identity Fragmentation-
“The notion of a unified, coherent self is an illusion” (Butler 1990).
The speaker of the poem, used disjointed language and thoughts which mirror her incohesive identity resulting from societal norms. Judith Butler points out,“Limited language reinforces patriarchal norms”.
By looking for the lost word the speaker looks for cohesion and unity in thought and life. It is because her identity is in question and fragmented identity stands for vulnerability and instability.
“When her mouth was full of someone else’s tongue” (Morgan 2001).
They are unrecognizable because their experiences are unnamed, unspoken and unmarked. In order to construct a destiny, an individual must have the potential to describe herself.
“A space that echoes with what’s been left unsaid” (Morgan 2011).
Without specific words the speaker is handicapped to convey her emotions, feelings and thoughts and they will remain
“In the hollow of my chest” (Morgan 2011).
As the gender identities are constructed and constituted by language. In the absence of a language, there is crisis of identity and existence.
The Identity given by others is just “the corporeal stylization of gender, the fantasised, and fantastic figuration of the body” (Butler 1990). And those who do not fall in line of the “corporeal style” have to suffer physically, mentally and emotionally. Femininity is not a choice but the forcible citation of a norm.
3) Subversive Loss
“There is no greater agony then bearing an untold story inside you” (Angelou 1969)
Gender subversion refers to the act of challenging and overturning traditional gender norms and rules often through performance, expression and representation. The speaker of ‘The Lost Word’ challenges subversive loss by challenging dominant norms through continuous and wholehearted search for the lost word in every nook and corner of her house which is her whole world.
The word was “picked through the buzzing, rubbish sacks” (Morgan 2001).
It shows resistance, revolt against the language learnt and erasure of marginalized identities. Speaker reclaims voice through harping on the same tune from beginning to end of the poem with grit and determination to find out the lost word at any cost. The search is to have a control over language and meaning but the search is not complete even at the end of the poem. Her dream to express herself remains incomplete due to paucity and penury of a language. It is in her collective conscience which reflects the impact of language’s learnt. The language that teaches and preaches- Silence is golden, the prerogative of women.
Lo behold, in a Latin treatise on marriage from 1667 advised women to remain silent, to avoid lighthearted comments, dishonour and impudence. Women through the poem ‘The Lost Word’ are challenging all these ancient embedded notions in our mind by learning how to articulate themselves through their own constructed language. She challenges, the patriarchal language-
“Under the carpet she finds lots of others/She’d forgotten/She’dswept” (Morgan 2001).
At least she is aware of shortcomings of a language developed by society which seems inexpressible to her. Through this awareness the speaker challenges the dominant meanings and notions. Lost word symbolizes complexity beyond binary categories.
Esther Morgan in her poems ‘The Lost Word’ reflects and challenges traditional notions of gender and language in several ways. She through her poem questions the dominant language structures that silence women’s voices and experiences. The speaker’s search for the lost word symbolizes, a lost say of a woman in matters of life, the reclamation of female identity and agency. The poem blurs the boundaries between masculine and feminine, challenging traditional gender dichotomies. Morgan’s poetry prioritizes emotional intelligence and intuition, traits often associated with feminine experience. The poem epitomizes how the speaker’s struggle to find the lost word reflects internalized patriarchal norms that silence women’s voices. The poem highlights how language is often gendered, with men’s voices dominating public discourse. It also deliberates the historical silence imposed on women, underscoring the need for female expression. Truly we can check the minute role of women written in history books which is next to none. To quote Virginia Woolf-
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”
Conclusion
Thus viewing Morgan’s ‘The Lost Word’ poems through the lens of ‘Gender Performativity Theory’ encapsulates the precariousness of language and identity. The speaker’s search for the ‘lost word’ exemplifies the performative aspect of language, where words constitute and shape understanding of self of the subject. The poem’s emphasis on silence and the struggle to articulate oneself underscores the constraints of patriarchal language. Morgan’s use of metaphors, motifs, personification etc. demonstrates how language can both empower and constrain. The speaker’s longing for authenticity and voice resonates with Butler’s concept of ‘performativity’. Identity is not fixed but rather performed through language, gestures, and actions. Morgan’s poems highlight the tension between societal expectations and personal truth. The ‘lost word’ serves as a powerful metaphor for the fragmented nature of identity. Morgan’s poetry embodies the struggle to find language that adequately represents the self, echoing Butler’s argument that identity is a ‘citation’ of norms, always already mediated by language.
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