ABSTRACT
Recent feminist theory has been much concerned with the Scylla of con-
structivism and the Charybdis of essentialism. In the former position, the reality
of the feminine tends to be denied or disavowed, being considered as but the
projection of cultural ideologies that are performatively acted out. In the latter
position, the reality of femininity tends to be affirmed reactively or retro-
spectively, as the reified negation of its negation. This book aims to consider
how both positions may be seen as perhaps compromised by too literalising a
logic. In the case of constructivism, ideas, ideals and norms of the feminine are
literalised in their performative enactment. And, in the case of essentialism, the
signification of femininity is taken to equate literally or in a constative manner
with what is signified. This work will offer both a critique of theories of the
performative and detailed readings of literary texts, particularly in terms of a
poetics of the real, in order to explore how we may move beyond the difficulties
that have just been outlined.
