ABSTRACT
Following Dollimore's call for the deployment of perversion as a cultural category (14), I want to explore the possibility that fictocritical writing in the academic context is an instance of the perverse. As objects for analysis I take theoretical and other representations of two apparently discrete models of plural embodiment, bringing together discursive constructions from early modern English culture, contemporary feminisms and children's fiction. Deploying fantasy and postmodern allegory, I undertake a feminist engagement with the essay as a potentially 'perverse space' (Burgin). I will dwell on theories of the king's two bodies (Kantorowicz; Axton; Zizek) and ask what would happen if we brought back into view that which the theory of the motherless state (Gatens) is in part designed to supersede: maternity.
